Red Cross Blogs

Posts tagged ‘earthquake’

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Kitty, 83, is one of the people the New Zealand Red Cross is supporting after the earthquake last February. She has cancer and finds it difficult to walk.

Kitty lives alone, so when her television and radio stopped working after the earthquake, she was completely cut off from the outside world. She says: “I just sit in my chair. I’m on quite a lot of medication so can’t move around, but I’ll be alright – I have to be. There are so many people worse off than I am.”

New Zealand Red Cross volunteer Ruth Herbertz often encounters this attitude, especially from the elderly. “But they’re not okay and this is not okay,” the 23-year-old says.

Ruth is one of many students who have volunteered their time following the disaster to check on the well-being of people stuck at home. Kitty is grateful for the company, and Ruth likes visiting her. Ruth says: “We get an outreach call and we go. I enjoy it; it’s my chance to give something back and to help someone else.”

Heating, light and sound

With help from Ruth, Kitty applied for a winter assistance grant to help her through the harsh weather conditions. Having qualified, she was able to get help paying her electricity bills for four months.

Kitty says: “I was feeling so afraid and desperate. People don’t realise I am sitting here all alone. It’s so hard when you lose your independence, but there is no use feeling sorry for yourself – you just have to get on with it. I needed help and Red Cross came.”

The Red Cross has purchased 35,000 wind-up and solar powered torch radios, to be distributed to vulnerable people like Kitty. The project will help people cope with future disasters, enabling households to access emergency messages, charge mobile phones and have light in case of an emergency.

Kitty says: “This radio is wonderful. It’s a torch as well, so I feel safe. People who gave to Red Cross are just so kind and lovely. Thank you.”

Find out more about our response to the New Zealand earthquake

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Today, AlertNet reported on the need for agencies to communicate better with people affected by disasters, and they’re right, which is why the Red Cross made it such a priority after the earthquake which devastated Haiti on 12 January 2010.

Talking to people after a disaster to find out their needs and provide them with vital information, such as how to protect their health, is hardly a new concept. However, the manner in which it is done and the emphasis on its importance has evolved hugely since the Asian tsunami – which, like Haiti, was a disaster where the scale of needs was overwhelming.

Just days after the Haiti disaster struck, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies embedded a dedicated ‘beneficiary communications delegate’ into the emergency operation, which was a first for the Red Cross. In July 2010, the British Red Cross also recruited its first delegate dedicated to beneficiary communications, Mandy George, to work in Haiti.

Life-saving information

Mandy says: “My work is about empowering people in their recovery. We use a range of ways to communicate, from walking around and meeting people face-to-face, to more high-tech methods such as using SMS text messaging to provide life-saving information to tens of thousands of people in one hit.”

In Haiti, the British Red Cross is helping people with livelihoods, shelter, and water and sanitation. Good communication channels with beneficiaries are vital to the successful implementation of every aspect of the programme.

Getting the message across

Delmas 19 is one area in the capital where the British Red Cross is working and using posters to communicate key stages in its programme. The posters were initially text-heavy but have been replaced by pictorial representations to cater to the illiterate community.

However images are also culturally sensitive and can be misconceived. So young community members were asked to join workshops and design the posters to ensure they would be understood by the local community.

To cater to a diverse population with different ways of absorbing information, messages are conveyed in many different ways, including song, dance and even a Red Cross phone-in radio programme.

Free-phone hotline

“Our communications strategy now is as much about listening as it is about giving out information,” says Mandy. “Over the last 18 months, we’ve increased the focus on two-way communications, ensuring Haitians have a say in and can shape their own recovery process.”

The British Red Cross also set up a free-phone hotline to allow people to ask questions and make complaints.

“Not everyone in Delmas 19 has used the phone hotline,” says Mandy. “But everyone asked feels better just knowing it is there. Having access to information is comforting and empowering.”

Find out more about how we’re helping in Haiti on our website.

Read Etienne’s story: I had to begin from Zero

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[Updated on 26 October: The Turkish Red Crescent has now asked for international support and we have launched an emergency appeal. Thank you for all donations to the Turkey Earthquake Appeal!]

Since Turkey was hit by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake yesterday morning (Sunday 23 October), the Turkish Red Crescent has been working to help survivors and reach people trapped in rubble.

The Turkish government has confirmed that more than 200 people have been killed, but there are fears this number will increase. It is estimated more than 1,000 people have been injured.

One of the strengths of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is that, with organisations based in 186 countries, we almost always have people on the scene responding immediately after a disaster strikes.

Turkish Red Crescent workers and volunteers have already rescued an unconfirmed number of survivors from the rubble of a student dormitory which collapsed in the city of Ercis, which has a population of 75,000 and is close to the Iranian border.

Red Crescent offices in Ankara, Erzurum, Mus, Adana, Diyarbakir, and Manisa have sent teams of disaster responders and supplies to the affected region. Over 2,000 tents, 7,500 blankets, 100 stoves, bread, water and food parcels are on the way to the site of the disaster and many more stocks are being organised for distribution.

Soup kitchens have been set up for those who have lost their homes or are unwilling to re-enter them, fearing aftershocks. The blankets and tents will be particularly critical as temperatures fall to close to freezing overnight. Electricity and telephone lines are also down in a number of areas of the remote Van province. A tent city is being set up in the stadium in Ercis.

What happens now?

The Turkish Red Crescent will assess the scale of the disaster and what level of support people need.

Along with a Geneva-based co-ordinating body, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, they will decide whether or not to ask other Red Cross and Crescent National Societies, such as the British Red Cross, for support. That support might be in the form of money, supplies or specialist personnel.

We appreciate it can be a frustrating wait for supporters who want to give money to help people affected by a particular disaster, but we need to take our lead from the experts on the ground before opening donation channels. We have a responsibility to make sure we can spend your money in a particular context before we ask you for it.

If you want to make sure we are able to respond quickly in an emergency, you might consider giving to our Disaster Fund, from which we often use money in the initial response to a disaster, before we launch an emergency appeal.

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This month, the global population is projected to top 7 billion. With the earth’s resources under increasing pressure, environmental cost and humanitarian consequences are inevitable.

For Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city, built practically on top of a fault line and with an estimated population of two million when an earthquake hit on 12 January 2010, the impact, as we all know, was an unprecedented disaster.

As increasing numbers of people are being affected by natural disasters in both urban and rural contexts, protecting people’s means of living so that they can feed themselves and their families is one of the biggest humanitarian challenges ahead.

Joy Singhal, British Red Cross recovery programme manager, says: “In recent years we’ve developed our disaster recovery programmes with a focus on helping people re-establish their livelihoods and protect them from future disasters. Nobody feels dignified relying on handouts for a long time. The quicker people can regain an income, giving them the means to rebuild their lives themselves, the better.”

Recovery in Haiti

In Haiti, the British Red Cross livelihoods programme is helping earthquake survivors like Luciana Pierre Jean. When Luciana fell pregnant, she was abandoned by her boyfriend and disowned by her family. Her baby boy was born on the day the earthquake struck and Luciana lost everything.

Since then the Red Cross has provided her with business training and a cash grant. Luciana plans to use the money to start a small shop.

“Since the Red Cross training, I investigated to see what items are in demand,” she says. “I’m excited to start. I will invest a bit of money at first, to see if customers like the products, before expanding. I hope to save money so I can send my son to school.”

Luciana also took part in a community project, building stone walls to fortify ravines around her village and prevent flooding. This aspect of the programme was developed after local people explained how flooding, from the hundreds of ravines in the surrounding mountains, regularly destroys their crops.

Working on this project allowed Luciana and other vulnerable people to earn vital income (in addition to the cash grant), while also protecting their communities.

Building a safer future

We live in an increasingly complex world with both urban and rural disasters delivering more complicated challenges, which include healthcare, social, economic, environmental and cultural factors.

Building a safer future means looking at how vulnerable communities can build their ability to withstand disasters. Whether it be an earthquake, hurricane, flood or drought it is the underlying issue of poverty which is the biggest challenge for those who struggle to get back on their feet. Protecting people’s livelihoods and therefore means of securing food, water and shelter is core to mitigating the impact of disasters.

Throughout October, we’re running the Seeds of Change campaign to explain the issue of food insecurity and what can be done to help break the cycle of poverty and hunger. Visit our website to find out more and watch our Seeds of Change video.

Image 1 © IFRC/ECHO

Image 2 © Amanda George/BRC

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Today marks six months since an earthquake in Christchurch left many families bereaved and homeless.

More than 160 people died in the quake, and some 2,500 were injured. Many homes were reduced to rubble or badly damaged.

Around the world, people generously donated so those families could recover their lives and livelihoods. Worldwide, Red Cross appeals made over NZ$80 million (around £40 million).

Thanks to the public’s generosity, the British Red Cross raised £2.1 million. The New Zealand Red Cross has set up an earthquake commission to oversee the use of appeal funds. Money donated internationally is being distributed as emergency and hardship grants for people forced to leave their home because of damage, or for people with no water, power or sewerage.

Grants are also being given to bereaved or vulnerable people, and to the families of children whose education has been disrupted.

Watch our video to see the difference your donation has made.

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