Corporate Social Responsibility RedR Australia
OUR PEOPLE ARE OUR GREATEST HUMANITARIAN ASSET RedR Australia roster member and engineer Neil and a UNHCR colleague prepare a COVID-19 treatment centre in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
From designing dams to refugee settlements, RedR Australia’s expert roster members are lending their technical and soft skills to humanitarian crises and conflict globally. When civil engineer Neil deployed to Bangladesh in March 2020, he was initially tasked with helping to flood-proof the Rohingya refugee camps ahead of monsoon season. Deployed through humanitarian response agency RedR Australia as a Hydraulic Engineer to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Neil was on the ground in Cox’s Bazar when COVID-19 struck. Quickly shifting his focus to the construction of isolation and treatment centres, Neil oversaw the repurposing of camp facilities as the disease threatened to infiltrate the settlement’s already-vulnerable population. Neil has since gone on to complete a further two deployments in as many years – working with Timor-Leste’s Secretariat for Civil Protection in two separate roles to assist the government to improve its disaster risk reduction efforts. 54 Consulting Matters
Following the country’s most severe floods in 50 years in April 2021, Neil’s coordination skills enabled 40,000 affected locals to evacuate to 41 centres. He also made recommendations for future mitigation efforts, work he’s continuing in his current role with the Secretariat as it looks to elevate its operational response processes. Neil is one of close to 800 technical specialists on RedR Australia’s humanitarian professionals roster – a register of skilled people who can be called upon to help partner organisations and communities to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies including tropical cyclones, floods and drought. As a member of the United Nations (UN) Standby Partnership, RedR Australia has deployment arrangements with 15 UN agencies as well as a number of national governments, regional and civil society organisations. In FY21, RedR Australia deployed 114 humanitarians to support 31 partners in 30 countries – the equivalent of 539 months, or almost 55 years, of continuous professional humanitarian assistance in just one year.
