Space Summary
The Twitter Space IFRC weekly spaces hosted by ifrc. The IFRC weekly spaces, hosted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, delve into crucial aspects of humanitarian efforts and disaster response, emphasizing collaboration, technology, training, community engagement, and inclusivity. The discussions focus on how partnerships, technology, and capacity-building initiatives can enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of humanitarian projects. By highlighting the importance of working together, utilizing innovative solutions, and empowering volunteers, IFRC aims to create a more resilient and inclusive future for communities worldwide.
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Space Statistics
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Questions
Q: Why is collaboration crucial in humanitarian efforts?
A: Collaboration allows for pooling resources, expertise, and networks for a more effective response.
Q: How can technology benefit disaster response?
A: Technology enables faster communication, data collection, and coordination during emergencies.
Q: What role do training programs play for volunteers?
A: Training enhances skills, preparedness, and the ability to address diverse community needs.
Q: Why is community engagement important in sustainable initiatives?
A: Engaging local communities builds trust, understanding, and long-term relationships for sustainable impact.
Q: How does inclusivity promote successful outcomes in humanitarian projects?
A: Inclusivity ensures diverse perspectives, needs, and participation, leading to more effective and sustainable results.
Highlights
Time: 00:15:42
Collaborative Efforts in Disaster Response IFRC emphasizes the importance of joint efforts for better disaster management.
Time: 00:25:18
Technological Innovations for Community Engagement Discussions center around using technology to connect with and mobilize communities.
Time: 00:35:55
Empowering Volunteers Through Training IFRC's focus on training programs to upskill and prepare volunteers for their roles.
Time: 00:45:33
Building Sustainable Partnerships with Communities Importance of community partnerships for sustainable, locally driven initiatives.
Time: 00:55:21
Diversity and Inclusivity for Impactful Programs IFRC's commitment to inclusive projects for broader community impact.
Key Takeaways
- Collaboration between humanitarian organizations is essential for effective response.
- Utilizing technology can improve disaster response and community engagement.
- Training and capacity-building programs are crucial for volunteers.
- Fostering partnerships with local communities enhances sustainability.
- Ensuring inclusivity and diversity in initiatives is key for impactful outcomes.
Behind the Mic
Introduction to IFRC Weekly Spaces
Thanks so much for joining this week's IFRC weekly spaces. We're just letting a few others join, a couple of speakers, but you're in the right place. Bear with us. We'll probably start in about 30 seconds to a minute's time. Thanks a lot. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are in the world. Welcome to this week's IFRC weekly spaces from the international Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. We bring you a summary of some of the work being done by people in our national societies right around the world, the national Red Cross or Red Crescent societies in countries from Asia to Europe and everywhere in between. I'm joined today, I hope, by my co host, Leah. Good morning. LEah good morning, Andrew hi, everyone. Thanks so much for joining. What is a rundown of what we've got coming up today?
Upcoming Topics and Discussions
Leah, so today we will get an update on the situation in Lebanon from our colleagues in Beirut. Then we will be talking about the floods currently taking place in Bosnia. Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day, so we'll have as well a speaker from Bulgarian Red Cross on mental health. And finally, we'll provide an update on our drift media summary report. Great. So lots coming up as ever. Let's start, though, with Lebanon. And am I joined by May, you there? Good morning, Andrew. Good morning, Leia and colleagues. May I know, joining us from Beirut, you're Lebanese. You're living this as well as seeing it with your own eyes.
Lebanon's Current Situation
In a minute from a colleague. We're going to get the sort of big picture. But first of all, may just give us a bit of a personal take on what it's like being in Lebanon at the moment. First of all, how are you? We are trying to be okay. So, Andrew, since mid September, most people, including myself and colleagues, barely sleep at night. The pace of strikes doesn't appear to be slowing down. The country is in full panic mode. Everyone is terrified of what might come next. So this is like everyone is experiencing, and I, it makes it difficult for everyone living in the country because now people have been accustomed to take things one day a time. It prevents you from having long term plans and dreams of what the future could look like on a daily or hourly basis.
Personal Accounts from Lebanon
People have to assess what they are going to do next, whether they leave their homes, whether they commute to work or not, whether they go to a certain neighborhood, if they are planning to leave or if they are in a death zone, though these decisions have to be made in a split second. And these are people who have not necessarily at that moment had their home damaged or destroyed or know anyone that has. But it's affecting everybody the whole time by what you're saying. Saying, yes, it's mostly you see the destruction and the bombs in southern Lebanon and also the suburbs of Beirut, in Bicar and some bombs and strikes in Mount Lebanon. So it's. And if you see like the massive population movement of people, they are afraid and trying to flee to seek safety in any village or any place they think that they will be and their children, they will be safe.
Experiences of Displacement
And may I know you've done a trip to somewhere, you know. Well, tell me about that. Yeah. Over the last weekend I visited a neighboring village in Mount Lebanon where many Lebanese have sought refugee after fleeing the bombs in the south. Normally, you know, my village, like in the neighbouring villages there, they seem quiet during the autumn. These mountain villages are now overcrowded with people seeking safety. I met visibly frightened children and their parents have decided to leave because of the deafening sounds of the bombing. So people are constantly following the news, convinced that their houses have been destroyed and that their dreams have disappeared along with them. I spoke with a mother, a young mother in her twenties who was displaced from Tyr to Mount Lebanon with her ten year old baby.
A Young Mother's Struggles
This lady is called Zeynep. She had to flee with 26 of her extended family members during the bombing and her journey lasted 4 hours. Unfortunately, her delivery wound became infected along the way. Now she has become better, but also she has with her family to be stuck in traffic for a long time until they reach this village where they seek refugee. Her family once had a comfortable home in Sariye, south of Lebanon, but now they are living with relatives. Imagine an unfinished house with no doors, no windows, no heating, and only they are wearing summer clothes. They are facing constant fear and uncertainty about the future and the well being of their children. And I guess this is the case for everybody. As you said earlier, no one knows, no one can make plans because no one knows what's coming.
The Reality of Uncertainty
Whether this is a temporary thing which is bad enough, but possibly bearable if you know it's going to end soon, or whether it goes on and on. What are your hopes and fears? May of course we hope that this suffering comes to an end and we, as IFRC, in collaboration with the Lebanese Red Cross staff and volunteers, we will be able to respond to the imminent needs to help people preserve their lives and also their dignity. Well, mate, stay with us because I'm going to come back to you on something else in a few moments, but let's turn now to Bastian, who's also in Beirut, who's been normally based with the Red Cross in the Netherlands, but he's working at the moment in response to the events in Lebanon and with the IC, as I say, in Beirut.
Bastian's Overview on Operations
Bastian, are you there? Yeah. Hi. Hi, Andrew. Hi, everyone. Bastian, give us the big picture, then, what has been going on over the last seven days or so? Yeah, I've been amazed. I've been here now for almost a week, and the scale of the operation of the Lebanese Red Cross is just. It's just amazing, with their almost 15,000 volunteers and they're working around the clock to just provide as much aid and care as they can. And they have been, of course, scaling up since last year, October, and then with the escalations last month that even got scaled up further. So at the moment, they're giving so much aid to those people displaced, which is hundreds of thousands, if not over a million people that are now displaced throughout the country.
Aid Distribution Efforts
So big shelters. The Red Cross will be there to give all kinds of services, you know, mattresses, blankets, food, water, medical services, as well as a lot of ambulance rides that they're doing all the time. They have done, like, tens of thousands of ambulance trips throughout the country since last year. And that just goes on and on every day. Also, blood donated by so many people that feel the need to contribute in whatever way they can. And blood, of course, is one of the most valuable things that you can donate. So the distributions and the scale of the operation, it's just really intense to see. Yeah, it's impressive.
Continued Needs and Emergency Appeal
It does. It sounds incredibly impressive, but it's not enough. Right. With so many needs. And I know there is an emergency appeal for, I think, some 200 million swiss francs, but it's.
Funding Issues in Crisis Response
It's not very funded, is it? And there's a lot more than he's doing. A lot more money that is needed to do it. Yeah. Now, with Lebanon also needing so much more support, financial support. So the emergency appeal, that is indeed close to 200 million swiss francs, unfortunately, is only funded for 12%. So that leaves a funding gap of 88%. And it's not only for Lebanon, it also is for Syria. For the whole bigger picture, Gaza, of course, there is so much money needed. And now Lebanon also definitely needs a lot of millions to be able to cope and keep going with this daily operation of food and water and everything that's needed. So there is a huge funding gap and definitely a call to every national society or everyone listening, spread the word that funding is much needed. Indeed. And as you say, it's other countries affected, too.
Syrian Arab Red Crescent Response
Tell us a little bit about how the syrian arab bread crescent has been responding over the last week or two because this is all affecting them too, right? Definitely, yeah. So many people also went to Syria, at least as we know, 206,000 people crossed into Syria to seek refuge there. They have family, relatives, or maybe they have nothing, but this is the only place for them that feels safe at the moment. And so at the border, and there's a few border crossings where the Syrian Arab Red Crescent is there with their hundreds of volunteers and staff trying to aid to the people in need by any means possible. So that also means food, medical services, toilets. You know, you can imagine so many people on the border that need to be going someplace, but maybe they don't know yet where. So there's toilets, there's shelter, and they're working also around the clock to provide for these people. And also that is not easy. Like we saw an attack on the border between Lebanon and Syria last week that restricted the flow of aid coming in and out, but also the flow of people being able to go in and out.
Difficult Working Conditions
And it also adds to the danger that is there. So it's very hard circumstances to work and live in, but all the respect also for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent for what they're doing at the moment as well. Very impressive. Bastian van Blockland, usually with the Red Cross of the Netherlands, currently in Beirut working with the IFRC. Thanks so much for your time there. All of this, of course, comes in the context of the one year mark of the major escalation of hostilities that began. Well, the major escalation began with the attacks that happened on the 7 October 2023. The urgent need, as Jagann Chapagan and Kate Forbes, our secretary general and president, have written on a statement on our website, which you can see if you go to ifrc.org dot. The urgent need for peace and stability has never been clearer, but it's political and diplomatic efforts that are going to achieve this. Humanitarian assistance, as they write, cannot replace political will.
Humanitarian Efforts and Losses
The efforts of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Gaza have been absolutely huge, but at the same time, the losses have been huge. 227 members of the Red Cross Red Crescent Network have died since October 27, sorry, since October 7, 2023, 21 of them with the Palestine Red Crescent, six from Magem Davidom in Israel as well. So a pretty dire situation there. And of course, as things get attention in Lebanon, it slightly diminishes the attention on Gaza. But that is still going on and is still having a huge, huge impact on people there. Desperate. And I know may, if I can bring you back in here that you know some of the volunteers and staff of the Palestine Red Crescent Society and I think you've got a story about one. Tell us that.
Personal Stories and Hardships
Yeah, Andrew, as you know, for the past twelve months, our Palestine Red Crescent colleagues have tirelessly responded to the escalation of hostilities in Gaza with barely a day of sparing no effort to support the affected population in Gaza. And even 19 of them lost their lives while trying to rescue others. Among stories that deeply moved me is about a colleague at the Palestine Red Crescent who has been diagnosed recently with cancer. Despite his determination to keep fighting cancer, he's unable to receive the treatment he needs in Gaza due to the dire circumstances. Tragically, he cannot leave the strip due to the ongoing closures. As you know, the trafah crossing is still closed since May 5. And Mohammad Mansoor, he has this colleague. He has three children. Each day he hugs his family, knowing he may not have much time left, and he asks his colleagues to look after them when he's gone.
Widespread Medical Needs
His story, it's not only one story, it's not unique, because cancer patients, those in need of kidney dialysis and people with disabilities are enduring unbearable hardship. So far, like there is more than 12,000 individuals they need urgently medical evacuation from Gaza. Yet the Rafah border remains closed and the situation is extremely devastating. In conclusion, over the past year, the staff and volunteers of the Palestine Red Crescent, the Egyptian Red Crescent, the Jordanian Red Crescent, the Syrian Arabic Crescent and the Lebanese Red Cross have shown us what a true humanity and practice looks like. You know, over this year, they continue to serve as role models in the humanitarian field. Thank you.
Continued Calls for Action
Thanks very much, May. An important reminder that it's not just those who are killed or injured by the hostilities themselves, but the knock on to, as May says, there are tens of thousands of others is absolutely huge. We repeat our calls as the IFRC to immediately and unconditionally release all hostages, protect civilians, humanitarians and healthcare workers facilities, ensure safe and unhindered access for aid and essential services, and open all available border crossings to ensure a continuous and expanded flow of humanitarian aid. These things are so important and they need to happen now. Ifrciamiamiamrc.org is the email address. If you're a journalist and would like to speak to May or Bastian or any other person we can help put you in touch with, please do get in touch.
Floods in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mediafrc.org dot and with that, over to you, Leah, to talk about floods. Thank you, Andrew, and thank you, Bastian and may, for your updates. So now, over the couple of weeks, the last couple of weeks, the floods that have hit so much of Europe have moved to Bosnia and Erzegovina. More than 20 people have died, nine remain missing. Certain rescue teams have come in from neighbouring countries and the Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Erzegovina has been at the heart of the response. Lamia Alish is from the Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Erzegovina and she joins us now. Lamia, hello. Are you with us? Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Thank you for joining us.
The Impact of Recent Floods
My first question to you is how bad have these floods been? Hi. Hello. Are you there? Hello. I'm here. Yes, hello. Can you please tell us how bad the floods have been? The floods happen these days have been a large scale, affecting approximately 5000 people across six cities and municipalities. Tragically, as you said, there have been over 20 dead cases and around 30 people are still missing. Thank you. Can you tell us what has been the overall response and what has been the Red Cross participation in this response? The Red Cross Society of Bosnia Herzegovina plays a crucial role in disaster response here and our work is essential in providing immediate relief to affected communities.
Red Cross Efforts in Bosnia
We work beyond material aid to include psychosocial support which is vital during crisis. We have been actively involved in disaster relief efforts, working alongside with civil protection agencies, providing food, non food items, water, sanitation and hygiene support. We are also offering assistance to the teams working in a field.
Response to Current Flooding Situation
As you already mentioned, there is around 200 personnel from national international rescue teams on the ground working. So we started establishing psychosocial hotline and psychosocial support to the survivors and rescue teams. Furthermore, there are over 70 local branches of the Red Cross collecting humanitarian aid, distributing it to the affected communities. Thank you.
Impact of Recent Floods
Do you think there is a feeling that these floods are worse than the previous ones and that in the future years it may still be worse as we've seen, like in the headlines in a couple of the recent weeks with the terrible floods that hit different part of Europe? Do you have the feeling that it's the same now in Bosnia? Generally, if we speak about floods, it's nothing, something that we are unfamiliar with. And 2014 we remember as the worst crisis we had.
Current Crisis Assessment
While the geographic scale of the floods may not surpass these from 2014, the current situation is still dire. We are witnessing death cases and significant number of missing and displaced people which constitute as a huge humanitarian crisis here. And I think with everything happening globally, we are going to see more of these in the future. Unfortunately, we are working on immediate relief, but we are also trying to build resilience in the communities to face future disasters.
World Mental Health Day
This Thursday, tomorrow, in fact, the 10 October is World Mental Health Day. A moment to appreciate the importance of mental health and to appreciate how it can be threatened and what can be done about that. National Red Cross and Red Crescent societies around the world often have mental health programs at the heart of their work, given the sorts of things that they are working on and those that they're working with have experienced. And one example is the work that the Bulgarian Red Cross is doing with ukrainian refugees.
Art Therapy Explained
Good morning, everyone. First of all, I would like to express my great respect to all colleagues from the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies who are working on the field in different parts of the world in all these difficult situations. About the heart therapy. Bulgarian Red Cross is one of the national societies, part of EU for health project and regarding that, we are implementing art therapy as one of the mental health and psychosocial activities provided to the ukrainian refugees coming to Bulgaria and accommodated here in Bulgaria.
Benefits of Art Therapy
Art therapy enables people from Ukraine to express complex emotions such as fear, anger, sadness and grief, which might be difficult to articulate verbally. And when they are presenting these emotions through art, individuals can achieve better emotional regulation, reducing symptoms of anxiety and sometimes of depression. Because you know that the crisis started two years ago and it's so long time, and it's very difficult for some of the people who are coming from Ukraine to express their emotions.
Implementation of Therapy Programs
All of us in the bogerean Red Cross are very happy, proud and thankful to that. We have more than 100 psychologists who are volunteers of the organization. We already trained them how to provide art therapy, and it's provided only by psychologists. It's professional help, of course. We have volunteers who are trained in psych, social support, psychological first aid, who could use only art therapy techniques or methods in providing support in support groups.
Cultural Connection
To put it bluntly, it is working very well here because we have very similar cultural background with the people who are coming from Ukraine and experience of the ukrainian migrants understanding the cultural symbols, colors, themes, and that meaningful or potentially triggering for participants is essential. All the facilitators of the group should incorporate traditional ukrainian art forms, symbols and different motifs into sessions, allowing participants to connect with their cultural identity.
Target Groups of Art Therapy
It's very well accepted, especially from children who are about four to 14 years old. And for women too. The truth is that the men and the boys who are teenagers are not very interested to participate in such kind of activities. But for children, small children and women, it's very interesting and it is the way they could express their emotion, not only verbally, and there is no matter about knowledge of different languages or the language barrier and stuff like that.
Acknowledgements
Well, look, thanks so much for joining this Islava Ilieva there from the Bulgarian Red Cross. Thanks for all the work that you and your colleagues are doing. It's really interesting, particularly in the context of world mental health day, which, as I say, is tomorrow, the 10 October, there'll be plenty about that on our social channels. So do watch out for those. If you'd like to speak to this is lava, then please do get in touch.
Introduction to Drev
An increasing area of work for our network and some really interesting programs, as you heard there going on. Thanks again, Leah, over to you. Thank you, Andrew. Now we are going to talk about Drev. We've talked a few times on this program about the IFRC's Drev. That's our disaster response emergency fund. It's a fund of tens of millions of Swiss francs that can be used at speed to help national Red Cross or Red Crescent societies respond to a crisis that hits their country or increasingly to prepare for a hazard that's about to hit. We talked about it last week because an innovative insurance policy that supports it was triggered. But this week we're just going to spend a few minutes talking about the sorts of projects it supports, because there are lots. And a report looking at how draft funds were allocated over the first half of the year has just been published. Marilía Arantes put together the report, and she joins me now.
Emergency Allocations and Support
Marilia, are you there? Good morning. Lea, good morning, everyone. Yes. Good morning. I can hear you perfectly. Thank you very much for joining us today. Marilia, before we get into specifics, what sorts of emergencies are often given draft allocations? Thank you, Lea. Well, the draft provides life-saving funds for small, medium, and large-scale emergencies, whatever the local actors. By that, I mean the Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies do not have the means to respond with their own resources. So we also provide funds to kickstart international larger emergency appeals. So I can say that we support both small and silent crises, for instance, the ongoing wildfires in Bolivia, but also large-scale emergencies, for instance, the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. It's also important to emphasize that over the past years, we have grown our commitment with anticipatory action, so actions that will take place to mitigate the impact of events. And our goal is to have 25% of our funds allocated for that by 2025.
Types of Emergencies Supported
So in a nutshell, we support natural disasters, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, but we also support health emergencies, for instance, outbreaks of diseases like cholera, Ebola, Covid-19 we support the humanitarian needs in conflict and displacement and anticipatory action, as I mentioned. Thank you. Thank you, Maria. I was about to ask you about more specifics, but I guess you already replied some of the answers where the money was allocated and what's this money used for? You gave us some examples, right? I guess from what you just said. Yes. So I think you are referring to our mid-year report, which was just published and it is available on our webpage. So in there, we report that from January to the end of June, the draft has allocated the record amount of 34.9 million CHF to support emergency operations in all five regions. This is a significant increase from 2022, for example, when we allocated half of that, only 17.4 million.
Allocation Overview and Challenges
And in this case, the most common type of disasters that we supported this year were floods, droughts, epidemics, cyclones, and also cold waves. So 77% of the total allocations from the draft go to weather-related crises. It's also important to say that we support crises in all five regions, but that 46% of our resources are allocated for the Africa region, covering 81 emergencies in 69 countries. 10% of all that we allocated this year also was disbursed by our anticipatory pillar. So in support of anticipatory action. Thank you so much. Now, let's mention the insurance that kicked in last month. Can you tell me about that? Yes, sure. I think that's pretty much a hot topic since this is an innovative finance mechanism, and it was actually the first time that such a tool was used.
Insurance Mechanism Insights
So we have the insurance since the start of 2023, and we use that to stretch donor contributions. So we have donors that agree to pay an annual premium of 3 million CHF. So we fundraise specifically for that. The money is not taken from the operations, but it's fundraised for the insurance and we are insured on an indemnity base. So it means that the potential payout of 15 million CHF will be available if we meet the needs which are associated with natural disasters. So this year, the insurance was triggered because we allocated 33 million CHF in natural disasters in ODA recipient countries. And from now on, all these emergency. So all natural disasters in ODA countries will be covered with the insurance funds. And it's important to emphasize that this is a very innovative mechanism and it's a unique tool in this field at the moment.
Importance of the Annual Pledging Conference
Yes, indeed. Thank you so much. My last question that next month is the annual pledging conference. Can you tell us why is that important? Oh, thank you. Well, it's very important. It's our yearly fundraising event that happens yearly since 2021. It's happening physically in Geneva and brings our donors together to pledge their commitment to the draft in the upcoming year, but also to express their support and concern over the growing global humanitarian needs. And for us, as the draft, as the team, it is also an opportunity to showcase the work that we've been doing behind the humanitarian operations. So we also have the opportunity to talk about operational learning capacity, strengthening draft operational reviews, and a range of other topics. I believe you will post about that on the IFRC page.
Conclusion and Closing Remarks
The platinum conference is live on YouTube, so people from all over the world can watch this moment. Thank you so much for this great overview on our IFRC draft. Yes, as you mentioned, for any updates on the pledging conference as well as any news on IFRC draft, you can follow our IFRC account on X and the IFRC draft account as well, where you can find all the latest allocations. Thank you so much, Marilia, for joining us today. Back to you, Andrew. Thanks so much. Really interesting work that the draft is doing. The insurance is a really interesting product. So please do get in touch with us if you'd like to hear more about it, whether you want to contribute to it financially. Of course, we're never going to say no, but also if you're a journalist and would like to publicize it and the work that it does, it really is world-leading media at IFRC is the email address to reach us on. That pledging conference in early November is a great peg to hang a story around, so please do get in touch with us on that.
Reflecting on Discussions
Thanks to all our speakers today. We talked in depth about the situation in Lebanon, hearing both about the big picture but also some really personal stories there. We heard about the floods that are hitting Bosnia Herzegovina, then a mental health project helping Ukrainian refugees in Bulgaria. We heard about the art therapy project there, and as we just heard all about the Drev as well from our colleague Marilia Arantes. So thank you so much, Leah. I hope to have you back again. You're excellent as ever. Thanks to all our speakers. Thank you. Goodbye, Leah. Thank you, Andrew. Goodbye. Goodbye everyone. Goodbye.
