Red Cross Blogs

Posts tagged ‘video’

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You’ve seen the pictures on the news: men and women wearing the red cross as they dig survivors out of earthquake rubble. Haitian Red Cross volunteers working alongside experts from around the world to build latrines and sanitation systems.

But there’s someone else the Red Cross does that can be difficult to show in a news story. After disasters, we help families get back in touch with each other.

Imagine all the ways you communicate with your family – email, phone, text, instant message. Now imagine all those systems were down, or busy because everyone else was using them, too. Imagine your computer and phones were buried under several feet of rubble. What would you do?

From our founding 150 years ago, reconnecting families has been one of the most important ways we help conflict and disaster survivors.

In the case of the Haiti earthquake, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) set up a website where survivors could register themselves as safe and well. Families look at the names on the Family Links website in the hopes their loved ones will be there. Volunteers from the Haitian Red Cross have been walking through camps registering people and helping them call family members.

This video shows how it works and ends with one of the most heart-warming images I’ve seen come out of the disaster.

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Okay so toilets may not be the first thing you think of when it comes to life-saving equipment, but think again. Without decent sanitation facilities, diseases like cholera can spread like wild fire and as was seen in the Zimbabwe crisis last year – thousands of people can die as a result.

In an article on Reuters AlertNet, the UN reports that 7,000 latrines are urgently needed in Haiti to help prevent the spread of disease.

My colleague, Sharon Reader, is currently in Port-au-Prince with our sanitation emergency response unit. Listen in as I speak to her and find out how it’s all going.

Image © Joe Lowry/IFRC

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I always watch BBC breakfast, while eating my muesli, both to enjoy Bill’s quips and to keep up-to-date on the latest international news so I’m ready to hit the ground running when I get to the office. Obviously in the last two weeks, Haiti has dominated the headlines and I’ve seen many a report including interviews with my colleagues and footage with glimpses of the Red Cross emblem in action.

This morning, there was the amazing story of the man pulled alive from the rubble, just as the search and rescue phase has been declared over. However, it’s clear that Haiti is not going to dominate the headlines for much longer, although it will continue to be a huge part of our Red Cross work for the following weeks, months and years.

The first thing I did when I got to work this morning, was read Sharon Reader’s blog. Sharon’s a colleague I usually work pretty closely with as her day job is in our London press office. But she’s also a trained member of our mass sanitation emergency response unit. She’s currently in Haiti helping provide toilets. It’s certainly not a glamorous job – and you can’t be shy to talk about things such as ‘wild defecation’ – but it’s an important job and as Sharon points out, it certainly makes you think twice before complaining about the toilets at Glastonbury!

As well as loos, logistics is another area of British Red Cross expertise. Yesterday, we sent two more logs delegates – Kenny Hamilton and Gareth Morgan – to the Dominican Republic. They are joining Emily Knox and David Stephens who are helping receive the aid that is being flown into Santo Domingo before being trucked on to Haiti.

Gareth said: “I got the call 20 minutes before Osprey’s v Leicester on Saturday. It was a bit of a distraction, but I said yes and I can’t wait to get out there. I’ve been following what’s been happening on the news, and also I have been in contact with some colleagues on the ground, and reading their accounts on the Red Cross website, so I know it’s not going to be tough but however difficult conditions are for me, I will be able to come home afterwards, which is a luxury many of those affected by the disaster don’t have.”

Kenny, whose day job with the Red Cross is head of refugee services in Scotland also had experience in transport and warehousing and was involved in responding to the floods in Gloucester in 2007. He said:“ This is my first international deployment, but I’ve done a lot of training for this role and I’m looking forward to going out and using the skills I’ve learned. There’s no better organisation in the world to learn from and use these skills with, and this is such an important cause. The fact that more people with logistics skills are being sent out to expand the existing team is a real sign that the flow of aid getting into the country is growing.”

This morning, another colleague is flying out to Haiti. Paul Jenkins will be helping co-ordinate the Red Cross emergency response operation. This means linking up the different areas of the response and considering all a community’s needs, such as linking where new homes are built to future sources of livelihoods, as well as access to safe water and sanitation, and providing people with the skills, cash or assets to get back on their feet. Read more about long-term recovery on our website.

Before he left, I caught up with Paul to find out more about what he will be doing. Listen to the interview.

Donate now to the British Red Cross Haiti Appeal.

Image 1 © Marko Kokic/IFRC

Image 2 © Lloyd Sturdy/BRC

Image 3 © Sarah Oughton/BRC

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Listen in as I call Sharon Reader – one of our delegates in Haiti.

Sharon is part of our mass sanitation emergency response unit, joining the huge relief effort in Haiti.

Donate now to the British Red Cross or DEC Haiti appeal.

Image © Marko Kokic/IFRC

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So, our British Red Cross logistics team of four is now a joint British-Spanish team. Whilst Peter and Theo rough it in Haiti building latrines, our new teammates Antonio and Pedro Pablo have been getting stuck into the frenzy that is the airport and warehouse.

I have been mainly creating stock reports, bugging people for paperwork and working on the budget. There is, of course, also the constant flow of calls and messages to deal with and demands for information. I have been intrigued by how many ways people try and convey the urgency of their emails. Red flag, red exclamation mark, subject ‘Top Priority’ , ‘Urgent’, ‘Important’ and my favourite ‘Top Urgent’. 

I’m in daily contact now with Haiti. Rosemary from the American Red Cross, who is working with the Swiss Red Cross logistics ERU, emails and calls me on the Sat phone to find out the latest on what has arrived in Santo Domingo. This helps them relay to the relief teams what is available and they then put in a requisition for stock to be moved. 

In other news, I am getting a very faint farmer’s tan.

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When Luca Salone first heard about the disaster in Haiti, his first response – like so many people – was he wanted to help.

Born in Italy, living in France and now working for the British Red Cross – Luca is flying out to Haiti today to join the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ emergency response operation.

In Port-au-Prince, where the infrastructure has been decimated, Luca and others will be working out how to bring life-saving water to thousands of desperate people. Listen to this interview with Luca and find out about the challenges he expects to face.

Donate now to the Haiti earthquake appeal.

Image © Marko Kokic/ICRC

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There’s been an outpouring of support for survivors of last week’s earthquake in Haiti from people around the world.

The British Red Cross is part of a family of Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies. There’s a Red Cross or Red Crescent in 186 countries. That means when a disaster happens, local volunteers are almost always among the first responders.

Haitian Red Cross volunteers set up first aid posts right after the earthquake. Their homes may have been destroyed, their families may be missing or dead, but they are still working round the clock to help their communities.

This video shows how the massive family of Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers and staff around the world is supporting them and other earthquake survivors. Above all, all this is only possible through the generous donations that are coming from people around the world.

Image ©  Talia Frenkel/American Red Cross

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Hola! Well, the team were looking distinctively bleary-eyed this morning at breakfast. It’s been a stressful couple of days with the pressure of planes landing in a congested airport and challenges with storage in Haiti. Then there was the further tremor in Haiti, which I have to say I didn’t notice here but quite a few others did!

I’ve spent most of the day behind the computer… it’s like a bombardment of emails about a million things – mainly flight and cargo details, and changes for flights and changes back again. Everyone is doing all they can to get one of the precious ‘red’ slots at Port-Au-Prince airport to land. If they don’t make it, they get diverted to us often with little or no notice.

Recently, our airport has become congested and some planes have been diverted to Puerto Plata airport. All this makes my job of tracking goods more complicated and I spent a long time pouring over the schedule of flights and trying to match it to what David said had arrived at the airport.

Today, with the help of a lot of Dominican Republic Red Cross volunteers, David unloaded the massive Antonov plane that carried 10,000 blankets, 5,000 tarpaulins, 8,500 jerrycans, 1,500 mosquito nets, 1000 kitchen sets, 4,000 buckets and six vehicles.

Meanwhile, Peter our team leader has been called to Haiti to lead the mass sanitation ERU, which London will be arriving on Thursday evening. The mass sanitation ERU builds latrines and carries out hygiene promotion work to help prevent outbreaks of serious disease, which is always a danger.

Anyway, for me this means sadly we lose both Peter and Theo! Our team will be merged with the Spanish Red Cross team by borrowing two of their logisticians.

Well, I’m not too sure how to make my world of stock reports, finance and airway bills an exciting read for you. Just to say that the small pleasures I am enjoying are the warm breeze (it’s about 25-28 degrees here) and fried plantain! However, I can never fully relax as there is always the pressure of the urgency of everything that hovers in the back (or forefront!) of my mind. Nothing like a situation report from Haiti to sharpen the senses and help me focus on the job at hand..

If you would like to make a donation to the British Red Cross Haiti Earthquake Appeal please visit the our website or call 0370 60 60 900

Listen to an interview with Sharon Reader, mass sanitation ERU delegate, on her way out to Haiti.

Image 1 © Matthew Percival/BRC

Image 2 and 3 © Emily Knox/BRC

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