Red Cross Blogs

Worldwide disaster response round-up

By Katrina Crew
March 3, 2011 at 10:50 am

At first glance, last week’s tragic earthquake in New Zealand and the conflict and mass displacement in Libya don’t have much in common. One thing that unites them, though, is the fact that Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers in those countries have been well trained to help their communities in times of disaster. They’ve also been able to call on support from specialists around the world.

Here’s a brief round-up of how the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is helping people in disasters.

Libya, Tunisia and Egypt: As fighting continues in Libya, Red Crescent volunteers there and in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt have been helping those affected and those fleeing the country. An estimated 147,000 people have crossed the borders into Egypt and Tunisia since the unrest began last month.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, Norwegian Red Cross and Finnish Red Cross have sent medical teams to Libya and Tunisia. The British Red Cross has launched the Libya & Region Appeal to support the relief effort.

Read more on our website.

New Zealand earthquake: Over 150 people are known to have died, and around 50 are still missing. Over 30,000 people have been displaced. There’s been extensive damage, including burst sewage lines, damaged buildings and homes, power cuts, and damaged water and telephone lines to many areas of Christchurch.

New Zealand Red Cross volunteers and staff have been focusing on search and rescue, staffing welfare centres, and taking tracing enquiries from people concerned about family members.

Operation Suburb, initiated by the Christchurch City Council, began on Friday 25 February involving 60 Red Cross volunteers supporting building assessors, going door to door across the city checking on people, their welfare and damage to homes. This will continue for a few days.

The British Red Cross has launched the New Zealand Earthquake Appeal to support the relief effort.

If you live in the UK and would like to be trained to help your community in times of disaster, find out about becoming a British Red Cross emergency response volunteer.

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Tags: disaster, disaster response, Egypt, International, Libya, Libya & Region Appeal, new zealand, New Zealand Earthquake Appeal, Tunisia

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 3rd, 2011 at 10:50 am and is filed under Emergencies, International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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