RedR UK reception in the presence of HRH The Princess Royal

RedR UK CEO Martin McCann shared the work of RedR UK in the past year, responding to humanitarian crises from flooding in India to the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia:

When the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Indonesia in September last year, RedR UK Members were on the ground, providing life-saving assistance as part of the emergency response. Indonesia is one of the most seismically active countries on earth, meaning that another disaster on this scale in the future is very likely. With the generous support of our donors, we were able to work with RedR Indonesia to build national capacity in-country, in terms of refugee camp coordination and management. 

In India, vulnerable communities felt the full force of climate change when the worst monsoon in the last 100 years triggered widespread flooding and landslides in Kerala, leaving over 1 million people stranded in relief camps across the region. Along with devastating homes and livelihoods, the floods contaminated most of the wells, Kerala’s primary water supply, leaving isolated communities without access to clean water. Working with RedR India, we deployed emergency water filters to local communities, provided training in emergency water testing to government health workers and gave expert WASH advice to support the clean-up operation.   

Guests also heard about the launch of a new RedR UK designed to build the skills and knowledge of vulnerable communities, helping to build their resilience against the growing threat of climate change:

With the UN warning 122 million more people could potentially be driven into extreme poverty by 2030 due to natural disasters, the need to build climate-resilience knowledge and skills into the operations and planning within the humanitarian and development sector has never been greater.  

Thanks to the support of our Gold Corporate partner AXA XL, we’ll be working to meet this urgent and vital need. We are launching Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction, a new project supporting humanitarians working in areas affected by climate change. Our expert training will help humanitarian organisations incorporate climate-resilient practices into their current and future operations, for the ultimate benefit of the vulnerable communities they serve.