Red Cross Blogs

Worldwide disaster response round-up

By Ellie Matthews
August 4, 2011 at 3:26 pm

Here’s a brief round-up of some of the ways the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is helping people to deal with disasters around the world.

East Africa: The food security situation in the Horn of Africa has been deteriorating for many months and more than 11 million people are now in crisis. Areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Somalia are severely affected by drought.

Over the past 18 months, the British Red Cross has provided £675,000 for programmes across East Africa. It has just released a further £1.25 million to support people in southern central Somalia in coming weeks.

Through the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Somali Red Crescent, part of this money will provide around 13,950 families with cereals, pulses and vegetable oil.

The ICRC is supporting a network of Somali Red Crescent therapeutic feeding centres. As well as emergency food aid, the Red Cross Movement is also carrying out longer-term work to support food security in the region.

Donate to our East Africa Food Crisis Appeal

Read more about the situation in East Africa

Syria: The Red Cross is helping thousands of people affected by the unrest in Syria, including many fleeing to Turkey and Lebanon. Following meetings with high-level officials, the ICRC has been granted wider access in the country.

Since the beginning of the unrest, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent has distributed 22,925 food parcels, 10,000 hygiene parcels, 6,194 kilos of baby milk, 3,260 mattresses, 3,884 blankets as well as jerry cans, kitchen sets, medicine, children’s diapers, first aid items and stretchers.

Help Syria by donating to the Libya & Region Appeal

Haiti: The British Red Cross is helping Haitians prepare for tropical storm Emily, which is expected to cause heavy rains, potential landslides and flooding over the coming days.

Millions of Red Cross SMS messages are being sent country-wide to inform people of the impending storm and advise them of simple, but potentially life-saving, steps to take to keep them safe.

Volunteers are visiting camps and going door-to-door to spread these messages further and response teams are on standby for when the storm hits.

Read more on the situation in Haiti

Philippines and Vietnam: South East Asia is entering the 2011 storm and typhoon season. On 27 July, 645,000 people had to be evacuated when tropical storm Nock-Ten caused major flooding and damage across the Philippines. The storm claimed at least 25 lives, with dozens more still missing according to official sources.

Extensive pre-storm planning meant that resources and teams of trained Red Cross volunteers were on hand. Volunteers quickly distributed food rations and basic supplies to hundreds of people who had fled to evacuation centres.

In Vietnam, at least 22 people were killed in June when tropical storm Haima hit the country’s north-central coast. The Vietnam Red Cross has 10,000 household kits, one water treatment unit and one million water purification sachets ready for future emergencies.

Bangladesh: Since mid-July, the Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh has been experiencing devastating flash floods. The floods have caused ten deaths, left 30,000 people marooned and forced over 150,000 people from their homes.

The Bangladesh Red Crescent has been distributing food and clothing, and working with local government agencies in the search and rescue of those stranded by the floods.

Cameroon: Cholera has caused 359 deaths and infected more than 10,300 people across Cameroon since the beginning of the year, according to the Ministry of Health.

With the support of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the ICRC is responding to the cholera epidemic. Over 300 volunteers are working to raise awareness about good hygiene and sanitation in affected regions. Volunteers are also supporting staff at health centres.

The onset of Cameroon’s rainy season brings increased risk that the disease will spread.

*The Movement is made of 186 National Societies (including the British Red Cross), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

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Tags: Bangladesh, Cameroon, East Africa, Haiti, International, Philippines, Syria, Vietnam

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 4th, 2011 at 3:26 pm 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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