RedR Reception with HRH The Princess Royal

The event was a chance to thank those present and update them on RedR’s work over the past year.

In her speech, Her Royal Highness emphasised the need for training for humanitarian workers, to ensure that they have the necessary skills and knowledge to respond effectively to disasters.

Her Royal Highness also highlighted the scope of RedR UK’s work and commented on the broad reach and impact of the training programme.

RedR UK CEO Martin McCann shared the work of the Ready to Respond programme and spoke of the growing need to provide a response to urban humanitarian disasters.

“In just over 30 years’ time [by 2050], it is estimated that 66 percent of the world’s population will be living in towns and cities. Ninety percent of the increase is expected to be in Asia and Africa. This means when disasters strike, they affect a far greater number of people than ever before.

The scale and complexity of urban response and recovery demands a different approach from the traditional humanitarian model, where aid workers helped people in rural communities or in refugee camps.

This is why RedR developed ‘Ready to Respond’ with the support of Lloyd’s Charities Trust. With their support we have developed specialised Urban training courses, covering both practical and management skills."

Guests also heard stories from our work in the field, including interviews with Diana Kaduka and Paul Jawor. Diana works in Dadaab Refugee Camp, Kenya, for Save the Children. In October she attended RedR’s Gender, Age and Disability course in Nairobi, a programme funded by XL Caitlin. In her interview, Diana explained the importance of RedR’s training to her work in Dadaab.

“I would recommend that everyone in my organization attend the training because it covers everything you are working with in Dadaab. It is a place where there are multiple complex issues at play and these often revolve around age, gender, and disability. The issue of girl mothers, for example, is about age and gender. Dadaab is a unique area, and the training has helped me contextualise it.”

RedR Member Paul Jawor is a civil engineer and water and sanitation specialist. He recently returned from a three-week trip to the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh, where over 800,000 Rohingya people are housed in several camps. Paul explained to us the challenges he found when he arrived and the impact of RedR’s traning.

“The scale of the Rohingya crisis means we need many more people to work here. We have a good Bangladeshi workforce, who are benefitting from paid employment. We need to raise their skills so they can be effective. The best thing RedR does is to train local people. It’s the training that lasts the longest, and stays with them. This is how we make a difference.”

We would like to say a huge thank you to all our Corporate Supporters, Donors and Funding Partners for their continued support of RedR UK’s work.

To find out more about how to get involved with RedR UK please visit here.