KindRed Newsletter March 2013

March 2013 | NEWSLETTER

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Destruction from tropical cyclone Evan.

Tropical Cyclone Evan

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nly a few weeks before Christmas, life changed dramatically for the residents of the Pacific Islands as Tropical Cyclone Evan battered their shores, causing significant damage and flooding across both Samoa and Fiji.

Fa’avevela lost her home in the village of Tafitoala during the Cyclone Evan floods and Red Cross was one of the first to respond. “They were there for my family when I couldn’t be and I am very grateful,” says Fa’avevela.

Hours after the cyclone New Zealand Red Cross deployed International Programmes Manager Glenn Rose to Samoa. “I worked closely with the Samoan Red Cross to identify the immediate needs of the community and assess the damage,” says Glenn.

In response to Glenn’s findings, Red Cross deployed a specialist team of five aid workers to Samoa. The aid workers worked directly with those in need and the Samoan Red Cross,

providing expertise in sanitation, information technology and logistics.

Andrew McKie, New Zealand Red Cross International Operations and Emergencies Manager, says that work by the Samoan Red Cross will continue as the needs of the communities continue to change. Recovery from the cyclone will not happen overnight and New Zealand Red Cross will be there to support the Samoan Red Cross as needed.

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Welcome Refugee Services

Welcoming former refugees.

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taff and volunteers of Refugee Services Aotearoa New Zealand have been welcomed to the New Zealand Red Cross team, bringing together the expertise of Refugee Services and the resources and knowledge of New Zealand Red Cross and the International Red Cross Movement.

to Settlement, is a strengths-based approach to support. It focuses on empowering former refugees to become independent, fully integrated members of the community while working to achieve towards their goals and aspirations.

Working with and for refugees, asylum seekers and their families is one of the longstanding activities of the Red Cross Movement throughout the world.

We will be working closely with local communities, volunteers and former refugees around the country to ensure that newly arrived refugees continue to receive the support they need to build new lives in their new home.

The New Zealand Red Cross Refugee Services programme, called Pathways

Reaching the World

Aid worker Barbara Tomlison in Afghanistan.

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Fears Syrian war set to spread”, “Tsunami strikes Samoa”, “Suicide bomber kills nine in Pakistan”, “Deadly day in Iraq”, “Papua New Guinea battered by king tides”.

These are the headlines we see and hear every day; the constant stream of humanitarian crises hitting far too many countries. A lot of these are natural disasters with very little warning, while many are ongoing conflicts that aren’t looking to cease any time soon.

However, no matter the circumstances, these countries need our help.

Thanks to New Zealand Red Cross’s aid programme and the wider International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, vulnerable people around the world are receiving the assistance they desperately need.

New Zealand Red Cross’s aid programme now has a pool of more than 130 trained aid workers.

Approximately half of these aid workers are ready to go when

NEW ZEALAND RED CROSS

needed, which makes New Zealand the fourth-largest distributor of Red Cross aid workers internationally.

For aid worker Barbara Turnbull, it was a lifelong desire to join Red Cross that motivated her to join the programme, and it has now seen her complete five assignments overseas. “On my first mission I walked to Red Cross’s HQ in Geneva and thought, ‘Wow, I am actually going to be working for them’,” she says.

As a New Zealand registered nurse with theatre and ward management experience, Barbara has utilised her skills in some of the world’s most conflict-ridden areas. She has had three assignments to Afghanistan (once to Jalalabad and twice to Kandahar), another to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and once to Peshawar, Pakistan.

While working as an operating theatre nurse with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) surgical team and as a head nurse on her

last assignment, Barbara has been in extreme environments that are a far cry from anything she has experienced in New Zealand.

“Generally the hospitals are not of the standard we enjoy in New Zealand, and the standard of care a patient receives is similarly not as high; [therefore] a big part of our job was to train local staff,” explains Barbara.

Another big part of the job for Barbara was teaching local hospital workers how to care for patients with weapon wounds as per the standards set by the ICRC. “These standards are basic and proven over time so not difficult as such, but we just need to ensure that the care is carried out per protocol,” she says.

The New Zealand Red Cross aid programme not only works to provide immediate help to the sick and wounded, but also ensures that vulnerable communities have the right skills and means to look after themselves once the aid has gone.

New limbs thanks to the ICRC’s Special Fund for the Disabled.

Rehabilitation: The power to walk and work again I

magine stepping onto a buried antipersonnel mine; the detonation is likely to rip off one or both of your legs and drive soil, grass, gravel, metal and plastic fragments of the mine casing, pieces of shoe and shattered bone up into the muscles and lower parts of your body. If it explodes while being handled, a mine can blow off your fingers, hands and arms, and injure parts of your face, abdomen and chest.

These are the very real and horrific injuries caused by landmines and the explosive remnants of war, as described by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Processes are in place to outlaw anti-personnel mines, but landmine casualties occur daily. People in affected areas are compelled to enter

dangerous situations to gain access to water, fuel, grazing and other basic necessities.

Furthering the issue, these dangerous components are not restricted to particular areas but spread out, lying in wait for the unaware person. This results in varying injuries to all kinds of people, usually unsuspecting citizens not involved in conflict, simply trying to carry out everyday activities.

It is estimated that 11,500 people in Laos are suffering from injuries, including the loss of limbs, as a result of war. Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the history of warfare, with an estimated two tonnes of ordnance per capita dropped

on the country since the 1970s.

Landmine survivors and conflict casualties make up a significant proportion of the people with disabilities in Laos.

The ICRC is dedicated to a mine action plan in the hope of reducing landmine and explosive remnants of war. New Zealand Red Cross supports it in this effort with a focus on rehabilitation, providing funding to the Special Fund for the Disabled annually, and this year contributing just over $130,000. In Laos you can make a difference in helping people to regain their mobility and indeed to maintain it for the rest of their lives.

KINDRED NEWSLETTER

National Office PO Box 12140, Wellington 69 Molesworth Street, Thorndon, Wellington 6144 Phone: 0800 697 277 Email: projectpartners@redcross.org.nz Website: www.redcross.org.nz

Investing in disaster preparedness

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he first of five specially designed disaster welfare support trucks has rolled off the production line, built to enable New Zealand Red Cross to support a national response to a disaster anywhere in the country.

Lessons learnt from the Canterbury earthquakes highlighted the importance of being prepared. In the past two years New Zealand Red Cross has placed a significant focus on investing in and building its response capability, to ensure that it is there to support existing welfare capabilities.

Red Cross is now more prepared than ever before to respond to and support other emergency services in delivering first aid, welfare and search and rescue services in disaster and emergency situations.

The trucks each hold welfare centre set-up equipment, including stretchers and blankets for 140 people, basic food and toiletries for volunteers for a couple of days, medical supplies, an AED (automated external defibrillator),

Setting up the awning on the first disaster welfare support truck.

individual and centre hygiene sets, lighting sets and telecommunication sets. The trucks also provide room for emergency personnel to perform mass casualty triage and pre-hospital emergency first aid support if needed.

The new trucks are an investment of about $1.5 million, funded from

donations from other Red Cross National Societies.

The remaining two trucks are currently being built and will be released in the coming months. When completed the trucks will be based in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Make nuclear weapons the target

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espite the human cost, there has been an increase in the number of nuclear weapon states in the past 30 years. In addition, non-state actors are now trying to obtain the material for nuclear weapons.

We account that there are still at least 22,000 nuclear weapons in the world, held by more and more states. Their combined destructive force is equal to approximately 150,000 Hiroshima bombs.

Through our research we have concluded that there is no adequate international capacity to assist the victims of nuclear attacks – and such

conclusions have consequences; they mean that the only cure is prevention.

For the Red Cross these are pretty compelling arguments for why something has to be done now.

In November last year the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, comprising all 187 National Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, took a defining step in

its efforts on this issue. Findings concluded that the use of nuclear weapons clearly violates international humanitarian law. A resolution was adopted “towards the elimination of nuclear weapons”.

The resolution calls upon National Societies, like New Zealand Red Cross, to raise awareness of this issue and to call on their governments to ensure that these weapons are eliminated through a legally binding treaty.