Red Cross Blogs

Posts tagged ‘disaster response’

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This week, people up and down the country are dedicating their time and energy to raising money for the British Red Cross.

These dedicated fundraisers never stop dreaming up imaginative ways to bring in donations – which is just as well, because every penny they bring in is hugely important.

Every year we help people in crisis, both internationally and in the UK. Every pound donated to Red Cross Week is vital in supporting this work.

How your money could help

Perhaps you’re organising a game of office bingo? Sell tickets for 80p apiece and each one is enough to help a child affected by the war in Sierra Leone reintegrate into school. Imagine how many children you could help by getting your whole building involved.

Let’s say you put on a bake sale at your university and charge £2.50 for a slice of your famed marshmallow-topped devil’s food cake. That one slice has raised enough to buy a foil blanket for someone who has survived an emergency in the UK.

If you’re a sporty type, perhaps you’re taking on a challenge for Red Cross Week. Whether running, swimming, cycling or jumping out a plane, just £5 in sponsorship money could feed one critically malnourished child for a week.

Clearing out your cupboards? That old ill-fitting summer dress could sell for £10 in a Red Cross charity shop, enough to train one vulnerable person in the UK to save lives in an emergency. Your unloved frock could mean the difference between life and death.

There are a million ways to get involved this Red Cross Week, and whatever you do – and however much you raise – it’s enough to help someone, somewhere, in crisis.

It’s not too late to get involved in Red Cross Week 2012 – find out how.

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Worldwide disaster response round-up

We recently launched our Pakistan Floods Appeal. Here’s a brief round-up of some of the ways the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is helping people in Pakistan and in other countries around the world.

Pakistan: In Pakistan, monsoon rains and floods are causing widespread destruction. Over five million people have been affected. Families have lost their livelihoods, and overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in temporary relief camps mean many people risk disease.

Some of the areas affected are still recovering from last year’s flooding, including Sindh province, which is once again one of the worst-hit areas.

The British Red Cross worked with the Pakistan Red Crescent and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to prepare for this year’s monsoon rains. A grant of £1.7 million from the Department for International Development (DFID) enabled the Red Cross to pre-position emergency stocks in the country.

The Pakistan Red Crescent – with support from the Red Cross – is now providing health support, producing clean water, and distributing food parcels and other aid.

Read more about how we’re helping in Pakistan

Donate to the Pakistan Floods Appeal

Middle East and north Africa: The Red Cross is helping people in many countries across the Middle East and north Africa.

As front lines shift in disputed areas of Libya, the ICRC is working with the Libyan Red Crescent to provide medical assistance, visit hundreds of detainees and deliver aid.

Violence in Syria continues to escalate. Recently, a Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer died – and two more volunteers were injured – when their ambulance was caught in heavy fire while evacuating an injured person to a hospital. The unprecedented levels of violence have caused the ICRC to call upon the authorities, demonstrators and all others involved to respect human life and dignity at all times.

Donate to the Libya & Region Appeal

East Africa: As famine, drought and conflict in the Horn of Africa continues, the Red Cross movement is helping people across the region. In Somalia, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) remains one of the few humanitarian agencies able to work in the southern and central parts of the country.

Over the past 18 months the British Red Cross has provided £1.2 million for programmes across East Africa. It recently released a total of £2.25 million to support people in southern central Somalia.

The Red Cross is also helping support food security in the region through longer-term projects, including maintaining local water supplies, running school feeding programmes, providing healthcare and promoting sustainable farming.

Read the World Disasters Report 2011, which highlights the growing pressure of food insecurity and malnutrition on populations across the globe.

Donate to the East Africa Food Crisis Appeal

Japan: Six months ago, an earthquake and tsunami devastated huge areas of Japan. To date, Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies worldwide have received donations totalling £323 million – including more than £13 million to the British Red Cross.

Appeal funds are supporting the Japanese Red Cross relief and recovery programme, which includes providing medical care and psycho-social support to survivors. The Japanese Red Cross also plans to build temporary hospitals.

Read more about how appeal funds will help Japan recover

Nepal, India and China: On 18 September, a deadly earthquake struck the Himalayan region bordering north India and Nepal. The earthquake measured 6.9 on the Richter scale and killed at least 100 people.

Teams from the Red Cross National Societies of Nepal, India and China have been mobilised and some are working on the ground, providing emergency relief and medical support to survivors in their respective countries.

Read more on how the Red Cross is helping

*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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Throughout this year, the TV news has been filled with images of aid boxes arriving in countries that have suffered a major disaster.

But disaster relief doesn’t just come in the form of non-perishable food and bottles of water. It’s also the calm and caring voice of a person who can tell you where to go to get help, and how to sign up for long-term support. It’s someone who will lend you a mobile phone so you can contact family. And it’s people with specialist skills who risk their lives in the most dangerous situations to help survivors.

This year has been a stark reminder of the many forms disaster relief takes, and that anyone – anywhere – can be vulnerable to crises. As part of a global network that has specially trained local volunteers in 186 countries, the British Red Cross has been supporting massive relief operations after four major disasters in 2011.

On February 22, an earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, reduced homes and businesses to rubble. At least 160 people lost their lives and 2,500 were injured. Some survivors were left stranded in damaged homes with no electricity, no running water, no sewerage, and no way to contact anyone.

After the earthquake, New Zealand Red Cross volunteers worked in teams going door-to-door looking for anyone who needed help. Among the people they discovered was a 19-year-old woman and her toddler son living in their car in their driveway. Their home was uninhabitable and they didn’t have enough petrol to drive to a petrol station. The volunteers filled their tank and helped them get to a welfare centre where they would be safe.

When a massive earthquake struck Japan a few weeks later, the Japanese Red Cross responded immediately, carrying out search and rescue, and providing first aid for survivors.

Around 14,000 people have been confirmed dead and some 13,000 remain missing.

Since the disaster struck, the Japanese Red Cross has been providing healthcare, food and water to the many thousands of people left homeless or displaced by the earthquake, tsunami and ongoing problems at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

But just as importantly, they’ve been providing psychosocial support for distressed people. In one shelter, for example, an elderly man visited a Red Cross nurse and told her felt unwell. She could tell he was holding back information, so she chatted with him for a while. He finally admitted that he had a colostomy bag, and he was too embarrassed to change it in the shelter. By taking the time to talk, and to make him feel comfortable, the nurse was able to help him find ways to manage his complex health needs.

Someone to help you find family

In the Ivory Coast, violence erupted at the end of 2010 after election results were disputed. More than one million people fled their homes, including over 180,000 who crossed the border to nearby countries. The majority of refugees are now being hosted in villages and camps in Liberia, one of the poorest countries in the world, where food and water supplies are running out and there are not enough shelters or latrines.

In the chaos of fleeing their homes, many displaced people have lost contact with their families. They have no idea whether their husbands, wives, children, parents managed to escape as well. The Liberian Red Cross has volunteers working in camps along the border, registering people who have been separated from their loved ones so they can be reunited.

Emergency healthcare in danger

Emergency responders and local Red Cross or Red Crescent volunteers are usually the first on the scene to help survivors of major disasters. But the conflict in Libya reminds us that they’re just as vulnerable in disasters as the people they’re rushing to help.

The Libyan Red Crescent and its partners are delivering aid to thousands of displaced people in Benghazi, Misrata and around Tripoli, as well as people living in shelters or with relatives in the western mountain areas.

They’re also running a camp in Misrata and distributing food to people who have been displaced. Volunteers are providing first aid and have provided blood bank services to those injured in the conflict. Doctors and nurses from both the Libyan Red Crescent and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are treating people wounded in the fighting.

But those ambulance drivers, first aid volunteers, doctors and nurses are as vulnerable as the casualties they’re helping. Ambulances have been hit, one nurse has died, and several volunteers have been injured.

How you can help

Successful disaster relief operations depend on many things. Volunteers can contact the Red Cross or Red Crescent National Society in their own country to find out how to be prepared for disasters in their communities. For example, the British Red Cross has emergency response and first aid volunteers who support the statutory emergency services in the UK.

Many disaster relief operations also rely on trained professionals who are ready to use their skills anywhere they’re needed.

But none of this work is possible without generous donations from the public. 

Find out more about the disaster relief operations you can support through the British Red Cross.

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

Libya and Tunisia: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is moving more food and essential household items into Libya. The ICRC has called upon all parties to abide strictly by the rules and principles of international humanitarian law.

Around 8,000 people are currently living in the Choucha camp on the Tunisian border. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has built 260 latrines at the camp and the ICRC is helping people at the Egyptian and Tunisian borders contact their families.

The Italian Red Cross has also been working to provide shelter and healthcare to the thousands of north-African migrants landing on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa.

Donate to our Libya and Region Appeal.

Japan: Following an earthquake off the east coast of Japan on Friday 11 March, thousands are confirmed dead. The Japanese Red Cross has deployed disaster response teams and is offering medical and psychosocial care for survivors and evacuees.

As concerns mount about radiation leaks from nuclear power plants, the Red Cross is also helping care for the thousands of people who have been evacuated. For the latest news on the disaster see our website.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, working closely with the Japanese Red Cross, has launched a Family Links website for people seeking to re-establish contact with family members and friends.

On 12 March, the British Red Cross launched the Japan Tsunami Appeal to support the Japanese Red Cross disaster response operation.

Côte d’Ivoire: The humanitarian situation is worsening for people in Côte d’Ivoire and for refugees in Liberia.

The Red Cross has distributed emergency supplies and basic medicines. Ivorian Red Cross volunteers continue to raise awareness of public hygiene and to mend equipment used to supply drinking water. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has also provided food aid to 1,020 prison detainees.

According to the United Nations, the number of refugees in Liberia is now over 85,000. The ICRC and the Liberian Red Cross are helping restore contact between separated families. Volunteers have been trained to provide care for refugees who may be injured or suddenly fall ill.

Read more on the situation in Côte d’Ivoire.

Yemen: A month of violence has gripped Yemen and demonstrators have reportedly gathered in cities across the country. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has expressed increasing concern about the loss of life and the injuries that have resulted from the escalation in violence.

The ICRC has been supporting medical facilities and donating first-aid and other supplies that can be used to treat the injured.

Over the past few months, the ICRC has provided training for Yemen Red Crescent staff and volunteers in first aid and emergency response. Dozens of volunteers have been working round the clock in places where people are gathering.

Read more on the ICRC’s work in Yemen.

Somalia: Heavy fighting has recently intensified between the government soldiers and militants along the Kenya–Somalia border, resulting in the movement of more than 11,000 refugees and over 3,000 internally displaced people.

The Kenya Red Cross Society has been providing healthcare, counselling, shelter, water and hygiene activities in a camp that has been set up to host displaced people. They are also providing a tracing service for family members fleeing the conflict.

The British Red Cross has also given £110k from its Disaster Fund to help the Somali Red Crescent, who are providing food, health care and water and sanitation assistance to people affected by a drought in the country.

Read more on the situation in Somalia.

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