Red Cross Red Crescent Magazine: Lost in migration

8/11/2019 Red Cross Red Crescent Magazine: Lost in migration

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Red Cross Red CrescentI s s u e 2 . 2 0 1 4 w w w . r e d c r o s s . i n t

T H E M A G A Z I N E O F T H E I N T E R N A T I O N A L

R E D C R O S S A N D R E D C R E S C E N T M O V E M E N T

Lessons of warHow the Syrian Arab Red Crescent rose to the challenges of civil war

We need to talk about volunteeringA new study questions the strength and reach of our volunteer network

Quiet killerOnce on the decline, dengue fever has made a deadly comeback

Lost inmigration


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The International Red Cross and

Red Crescent Movementis made up of the

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent

Societies (IFRC) and the National Societies.

The International Committee of the Red

Crossis an impartial, neutral and independent

organization whose exclusively humanitarian

mission is to protect the lives and dignity of

victims of armed conflict and other situations of

violence and to provide them with assistance.

The ICRC also endeavours to prevent suffering by

promoting and strengthening humanitarian law

and universal humanitarian principles. Established

in 1863, the ICRC is at the origin of the Geneva

Conventions and the International Red Cross and

Red Crescent Movement. It directs and coordinates

the international activities conducted by the

Movement in armed conflicts and other situations

of violence.

The International Federation of Red Cross

and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)is the

worlds largest volunteer-based humanitarian

network, reaching 150 million people each year

through its 189 member National Societies.

Together, the IFRC acts before, during and

after disasters and health emergencies to meet

the needs and improve the lives o f vulnerable

people. It does so with impartiality as to

nationality, race, gender, religious beliefs, class

and political opinions. Guided by Strategy 2020

a collective plan of action to tackle the major

humanitarian and development challenges of

this decade the IFRC is committed to saving

lives and changing minds.

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

is guided by seven Fundamental Principles:

humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity anduniversality.

All Red Cross and Red Crescent activities have one central purpose:

to help without discrimination those who suffer and thus contribute to peace in the world.

International Federation of

Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

embody the work and principles of the

International Red Cross and Red Crescent

Movement in more than 189 countries. National

Societies act as auxiliaries to the public authorities

of their own countries in the humanitarian field

and provide a range of services including disaster

relief, health and social programmes. During

wartime, National Societies assist the affected

civilian population and support the army medical

services where appropriate.

Editorial

I S S U E 2. 2 0 1 4 | R E D C R O S S R E D C R E S C E N T | 1

A new chapter in Movements family links story

Aretired air commodore with theIndian armed forces, J.L. Bhargavaremembers his first encounterwith the Red Cross Red Crescent Move-

ment. It was during the 1971 IndiaPaki-stan war, when an ICRC delegate broughtletters to the prisoner-of-war (POW)camp where Bhargava was detained.

Strangely, everyone except me got atleast one letter, recalls Bhargava, whoshared his story on the blog of the ICRCsNew Delhi office as part of the Movements

MyStory project (see page 26). So every-one got excited and all over the room they

were opening the letters.

One of the ICRC representatives asked me,

You didnt get a letter? I said: No. I wasvery perturbed. He said: Next month, I willbring you a letter. The next month, whenthe mail came, I got five letters.

More than four decades later, 72-year-oldBhargava remembers these letters and theICRC visits vividly a testament to the en-

during value that such messages and visitsbring. Though not every attempt to tracea relative or deliver a message is success-ful, every day people around the world are

connected to loved ones thanks to the in-dividual actions of Movement volunteersand staff.

Today, their work is backed up by an in-

creasingly sophisticated global tracingsystem that endeavours to keep pacewith the modern communications revo-lution while adapting to new challenges.

One example is the Migrants in Europeproject, in which 18 European NationalSocieties and the ICRC have teamed upto help migrants search for relatives. They

do so by allowing their own photographsto be posted on a website, along with asimple message such as looking for mybrother or looking for my husband (seemore at www.redcross.int).

The notion that delivering news aboutfamily members during conflict is a vitalhumanitarian action has been present

since the Movements inception. Sixty

years later, during the First World War,the practice took on greater proportions,

when some 7 million POWs were detainedand more than 20 million people were dis-placed. The International Prisoners-of-WarAgency, set up by the ICRC 100 years ago

this August, ultimately delivered morethan 1.8 million parcels to POWs duringthat conflict.

Today, the communications revolution pro-

vides the illusion of universal connec tivity.Still, millions of people fall through thecracks, particularly during conflict, natu-

ral disaster or in detention settings (wherecommunication is often restricted).

One of our greatest challenges is how tohelp the growing number of migrants,

many of whom are stranded in camps,prisons or host communities far from homeand their network of friends and family.The Movements history and expertise with

tracing and detention and its worldwidenetwork of National Societies put it in agood position to help. Our cover story (Lostin Migration, page 4) focuses on just oneexample in which a National Society and

the ICRC are working together to provideRestoring Family Links (RFL) services to de-tained migrants.

Elsewhere around the world, National Soci-eties, the ICRC and the IFRC are engaged inlocal and regional efforts to assist migrants;tracing services offer an important means

of reaching out to vulnerable people onthe move.

But our collective response is still small

compared to the vast scope of the prob-lem. Does the Movement have the capacityand the will to scale up its RFL network tomeet this challenge? A century ago, theFirst World War prompted a massive mobi-

lization that laid the foundation for todaysglobal RFL network. What would it take tocreate a similar mobilization today? Sendyour thoughts to [email protected] .

Malcolm Lucard

Editor, Red Cross Red Crescentmagazine

In August 1914, the ICRC established the International

Prisoners-of-War Agency to restore contact between

prisoners of war and their families and later, between

all people separated by war. Photo:ICRC

The first ICRC visit with prisoners of war took place at the

Gardelegen camp in Germany in 1915. Photo:ICRC

Today, it is estimated that there are some 220 million

migrants around the world. Many are being detained.

Can the Movements history and expertise with tracing

offer migrants an important humanitarian service in

certain cases? Photo:REUTERS/AthitPerawongmetha


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26. My story

20. Quiet killer

I S S U E 2. 2 0 1 4 | R E D C R O S S R E D C R E S C E N T | 3

ContentsISSUE 2 .2014 .www.redcross.int

Articles,letters to theeditors andother correspondence

shouldbeaddressedto:RedCrossRedCrescentP.O.Box 303,C H-1211 Geneva 19,SwitzerlandE-mail:[email protected] ISSN No.1019-9349

EditorMalcolm Lucard

Production OfficerPaul Lemerise

DesignBaselineArtsLtd,Oxford,UK

Layout

New Internationalist,Oxford, UK

Printedon chlorine-freepaper by IRL PlusSA, Lausanne,Switzerland

EditorialboardICRC IFRCM oh in i Gh ai K ra me r A nd y C ha nn el leD or ot he a K ri mi ts as S us ie C hi pp en da leSophie Orr Pierre Kremer

Wegratefully acknowledgethe assistanceof researchersand

supportstaffof theICRC,theIFRCand National Societies.

Themagazineis publishedthreetimesa yearin Arabic,Chinese,English,French,Russian andSpanish and isavailablein 189countries,with a circulation of morethan 70,000.

Theopinionsexpressedarethoseof theauthorsandnotnecessarily

of theInternational Red CrossandRedCrescentMovement.Unsolicitedarticlesarewelcomed,butcannotbe returned.

RedCross RedCrescentreservesthe rightto editall articles.Articlesandphotosnotcoveredby copyrightmay bereprintedwithoutpriorpermission.Please credit RedCross RedCrescent.

Themaps in thispublication arefor information purposesonly andhaveno political significance.

On thecover: A detainedCambodian workerwaitsto crossthe

ThailandCambodia borderat Aranyaprathet,in Sa Kaew,Thailand,

15 June2014.

Photo:REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

Photosthispage,fromtop:HarisCoussidis/ICRC;LailaTawakkol/SARC,Homsbranch;Paula Bronstein/Getty Images;Salvadorean RedCrossSociety; NickJones/IFRC

nCover story 4Lost in migrationOne hundred years after the establishment of

the Central Tracing Agency and the International

Prisoners-of-War Agency both founded to b etter

trace and protect people imprisoned or displaced

due to the First World War the complex issue of

migration offers new challenges for the Movements

Restoring Family Links and detention services.

nConflict 10Lessons of warChallenged by three years of civil war, the Syrian Arab Red

Crescent has given the world a case study in the valueof neutral, independent and impartial volunteer action.

nThe future of humanitarian assistance 14Humanitarian action 2064When a cyber attack cuts off control from a troop of

robotic soldiers, a Red Cross volunteer is left at the mercy

of an autonomous weapon. Part II of our imaginative

look into humanitarian action in the year 2064.

nUnexploded remnants of war 16Waiting to strikeA new exhibition of photographs that captures the

anguish and resilience of survivors, as well as the

commitment of those trying to reduce the suffering.

nVoluntary service 18We need to talk about volunteeringA new study finds that our volunteer network is not

consistently strong in many parts of the world. The

studys authors says its time for a serious and frank

conversation about volunteering.

4. Lost in migration

10. Lessons of war

16. Waiting to strike

nHealth 20Quiet killerOnce nearly eliminated, dengue fever has made a

dramatic and deadly comeback. Episodic, isolated

eradication campaigns are not enough to contain this

preventable, mosquito-borne disease.

nInterview 22Speaking up for humanityAfter his first two years on the job, ICRC President

Peter Maurer reflects on his role as humanitarian

ambassador and on the future of humanitarian

action.

nInterview 24The end of aid as we know itIFRCs outgoing secretary general says the future

will bring radical changes in the way humanitarian

assistance is conceived and delivered.

nProfiles 26My Red Cross Red Crescent storyPeople from across the Movement share their personal

Red Cross and Red Crescent stories.

nResources 29A new pamphlet on the Fundamental Principles and

a downloadable and visually striking new app from

the Finnish Red Cross are among the Movements

new offerings.

Iraq conflict escalatesWith armed conflict escalating inIraq, the Movement is respondingto what has become a large-scale,complex humanitarian crisis.

The ICRC has distributed food,water and other aid to displacedpeople in numerous cities andprovided medical support andsupplies to local hospitals. Manyhospital personnel have fled becauseof the danger, and there is a shortageof medicines, says Patrick Youssef,head of the ICRC delegation in Iraq.

Some 4,000 Iraqi Red CrescentSociety volunteers are also involvedin providing assistance, and 18 branchoperation rooms have been set up todistribute aid, according to the IFRC,which allocated US$ 400,000 from itsDisaster Relief Emergency Fund tosupport the National Society.

Branches in several northernprovinces, for example, haveprovided thousands of hot meals, aswell as tents and other assistance forfamilies displaced from Mosul. In the

town of Sinjar, the population hasgrown from 23,000 people to morethan 70,000 as people seek refugefrom fighting in the nearby city ofTal Afar. We are hosting peoplein schools, mosques, unfinishedbuildings we are offering ourown houses, says branch directorMuhammad Shariif.

Korea Red Cross bringscomfort and aidWhen a passenger ferry carrying 475people 325 of them students capsized in the waters south-westof the Republic of Korea in April, theworld watched images of shocked

and grief-stricken family memberscope with their loss as authoritiestried to provide answers. Volunteerswith the Republic of Korea NationalRed Cross, meanwhile, provideddirect assistance, bringing reliefitems and mobile kitchens to theport of Jindo, near to where thetragedy occurred. As anxiousrelatives awaited news, volunteersprovided survivors and familymembers with hot meals, bottledwater, blankets and other reliefsupplies. Meanwhile, 40 trainedKorea Red Cross practitionersoffered psychological andemotional support.

More violence in MaliViolent clashes between Malianarmed forces and armed groupsin and around the small townof Kidal in north-eastern Malihave forced thousands of peopleto flee towards the city of Gao,about 350 kilometres to the south.Most had to flee quickly, leaving

everything behind, and now itshard for them to meet their basicneeds, says Christoph Luedi,head of the ICRC delegation inMali. In response, the Mali RedCross and the ICRC distributedmore than 55 tonnes of food toaround 4,450 people, some 1,800 ofwhom were also given tarpaulins,insecticide-treated mosquito nets,sleeping mats, blankets, kitchenutensils, buckets, clothing andhygiene items. Meanwhile, theMovement welcomed the newsthat five members of an ICRCteam, abducted while travellingin northern Mali in February, hadbeen freed.

Helping women inemergenciesMany refugees fleeing Syria intoneighbouring Lebanon often findthemselves living in informal tentsettlements or unfinished buildingsthat lack even the most basicsanitation services. While this putsthe entire refugee population at risk,the lack of adequate hygiene is oftenhardest on women. In response, theIFRC and the Lebanese Red Cross areproviding womens emergency kitsfor 5,300 women and teenage girls.The kits include basic necessities formaintaining feminine hygiene anditems that can help protect womenin cases of sexual violence. I ameager to learn how my daughtersand I can benefit from this womenskit, says Salwa, one of the 1 million

refugees who have fled to Lebanonsince the conflict started in Syria.

In brief...

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VoicesSpeaking of inappropriate aid

During a drought in Zambia,

we received donations of

second-hand underwear. This

topic [of inappropriate aid] is

very real.

Samson Mujuda, a representative

of the Zambian embassy in Ethiopia,

speaking during a November 2013

meeting of diplomats and disaster

management experts from 35 African

nations in a disaster response dialogueat the African Union (AU) in Addis

Ababa, Ethiopia.

As part of our response to

Typhoon Haiyan, we received

four boxes of ball gowns.

Jeanine Cooper, representative of

the United Nations (UN) Office for the

Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to

the AU, speaking at the same meeting,

which also focused on developing

better agreements and national

legislation to improve timely delivery of

appropriate aid.

2.5: percentage of people sufferingfrom dengue who die from theinfection.

20: percentage of those whocontract dengue and die from theinfection if they lack adequatehealth-care services.

70: percentage by which the localproduction of medicines in Syria hasbeen reduced during three years ofconflict.

15,000: average number of reportedcases of dengue per year in the 1960s.

400,000: number of peoplethat the UN estimates have beendisplaced due to fighting in Iraq.

6.5 million: people displacedinside Syria.

390 million: approximatenumber of dengue cases reportedannually in the world today.

Humanitarian index

Sources:IFRC,ICRC,UnitedNations,SyrianArabRedCrescent

Photo:KatherineMueller/IFRC

Panic is the enemy when Ebola strikesEver since ebola swept through eastern Sierra Leone this summer, 21-year-oldJulius Tamba Kamanda has been extremely busy performing a dangerousand crucial task. Kamanda belongs to the Sierra Leone Red Cross Societydead body management team (pictured above), which often collects as manyas 8 or 9 bodies per day as part of efforts to contain the deadly disease. Wedont have a day off, he s ays, adding that team members start at 8 am andsometimes get back to our homes around midnight.

Similarly, volunteers from the Red Cross Society of Guinea have also beencollecting dead bodies and stepping up emergency communication to contain

rumours and raise awareness on how to prevent the spread of the virus. TheRed Cross can play a pivotal role in trying to stem the fear and stigma whichcan rise very quickly during such an outbreak, says Facely Diawara, whooversees the National Societys health operations. Panic is our worst enemy.

ICRC condemns murderof Libya delegateAn ICRC delegate with morethan seven years experiencecarrying out assignments inGaza, Iraq, Sudan and Yemenwas killed by armed men in thecity of Sirte, Libya in early June.Michael Greub, a 42-year-old Swissnational, had been the head ofthe organizations Misrata sub-delegation since March. Twostaff members who were withhim when the incident occurredremain extremely shocked, butwere physically unharmed. TheICRC vigorously condemns thisheinous attack, ICRC Director-General Yves Daccord said. We aredevastated and outraged. Michaelwas a devoted humanitarian who

spent many years of his life helpingothers.


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One hundred years after the Movement established the Central

Tracing Agency and the International Prisoners-of-War Agency,

migration poses new challenges and options for Movement

efforts to reconnect families and protect migrant detainees.

T

HERE ISNT MUCH TO DO in an immigration

detention centre (IDC) except wait. Day in,day out, with no pens, paper, books or con-

tact with the outside world, the only thing the 1,564detainees in the Lenggeng IDC can do is wait and

hope that someone will help to get them home.The Lenggeng IDC sits on a hill in a remote and

picturesque jungle area, south of Kuala Lumpur,

the capital of Malaysia. Here, amid the deceptively

pretty bougainvillea and mango trees, sit hun-dreds of frustrated and anxious men and women

from countries such as India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal,Nigeria, Palestine and Uganda. They speak many dif-

ferent languages and have different stories but mostare united in a common desire to go home and seetheir families.

I was promised a good job in Malaysia, says

Catherine,* one of some 250 women migrants de-tained in the centre. I thought it would mean abetter life and more money for my mother and child.

About two months after I arrived, the authori-ties raided my house and arrested me for not

having valid work papers, says Catherine, origi-nally from Kampala, Uganda. I dont have anymoney to pay for my ticket home so for almost ayear I have been waiting here in detention, hop-

ing and praying that someone will help and I can

leave soon.Today I was able to write my first Red Cross mes-

sage (RCM) to my mother, which has given me some

hope. I have been able to make one phone call toher but my credit ran out and I cant afford to buy

New frontiersOver the past few decades the global rate of migration has

increased significantly with more than 200 million people

now classified as international migrants. Factors such as

conflict, persecution, poverty and the search for employment

are driving this global trend, which in turn is creating

growing humanitarian needs for the Red C ross Red Crescent

Movement.

In South-East Asia, migration is a prevalent issue. For

example, between 2 and 4 million migrants, of many different

nationalities, are thought to be living in Malaysia. Some pass

through, fleeing conflict or persecution, ultimately hoping

to seek asylum or be resettled in other countries such as

Australia or Canada. Many others are duped by traffickers

or are economic migrants who come to Malaysia to work,

often illegally, and find themselves arrested and awaiting

deportation in one of Malaysias 17 immigration detention

centres around the country.

Around the world, the Movement offers services for

migrants in desperate and immediate need (those who have

just landed by boat or crossed a desert, and are hungry,

sick, cold or dehydrated, for example). And in many cases,

it offers more long-term help such as integrating with new

communities, referrals for dealing with legal or other issues,

or tracking down lost loved ones through its Restoring Family

Links services. For those in detention, cut off from normal

communication channels, some National Societies see the

Movements RFL network as offering a unique global service

to populations with roots in every corner of the globe.

One hundred years after the establishment of the Central

Tracing Agency and the International Prisoners-of-War

Agency institutions that cemented the Movements role

in reuniting people separated by war and in protecting those

detained during wartime the issue of migration is pushing

the Movements protection mandate into new territory.

Could RFL be an important means to reach out to this

growing, and extremely vulnerable, migrant population?

RFL with migrants

is a lot more

complicated

than in a natural

disaster because

youre dealing

with people from

many countries,with different

languages and all

kinds of different

situations.

Muna Djuly, ICRC assistant

protection officer

J ICRC assistant protection officer

Muna Djuly says Restoring Family

Links services are greatly needed

because access to telephone,

internet and other forms of

communication inside immigrant

detention centres is very limited.

Photo:Haris Coussidis/ICRC

LMigrants from different countries in western Africa sit in the police

commissioners office after being arrested at a border checkpoint in

Agadez, Niger in March 2014. Photo:REUTERS/Joe Penney

Lost in migration


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another card, so hopefully this message will reachher and she will know that I am OK.

The message that Catherine was able to sendhome comes thanks to a joint pilot project, whichbegan almost three years ago, between the Ma-laysian Red Crescent Society and the ICRC that has

brought Restoring Family Links (RFL) services fordetained migrants in the Lenggeng IDC.

The people in Malaysias IDCs come from manydifferent countries, explains Lim Mei Chin, the Ma-laysian Red Crescents RFL officer. More recently,

there has been a rise in the number of people fromRakhine state in Myanmar.

During the RFL officers visits, the detainees areable to write Red Cross messages to their families

or provide telephone numbers so that the Malay-sian Red Crescent Society, other National Societiesor ICRC delegations can deliver short oral messagesto relatives over the phone. However, unlike tradi-

tional salamator I am alive messages, which aretraditionally dictated to Red Cross Red Crescent staffin separate meetings and avoid authority censors,in Malaysia the phone messages are extracted fromwhat has been written down in the Red Cross mes-

sages.

Going home is not easyIt may not sound like much. But for the detainees,awaiting their fate with days turning into weeks,then months and years, any help or interaction with

the outside the world is welcomed. Some of themhave been here for as long as two years, explainsMohammed Ramlan Bin Che Hassan, who has beenin charge of the Lenggeng centre for the past three

years and has seen the number of detainees rise

from 800 to more than 1,500 during his tenure.We just want these people to go back to their

homes, he says, adding that most detainees arebeing held due to immigration offences such as

lack of official documentation or valid work permits.Here, we are dealing with detention and deporta-tion, not punishment.

But going home isnt so easy. Organizing the pa-perwork and lost passports through embassies, or

finding the funding to pay for plane tickets, meansmany of those brought to the IDC will be detainedfor at least three months. And with their mobilephones confiscated on arrival and telephone cards

for the pay phones prohibitively expensive, contactwith their families can quickly be lost.

There is definitely a need for the RFL service inthe immigrant detention centres, says Muna Djuly,

the ICRCs assistant protection officer. The detain-

ees will maybe get one free call when they arrive ormaybe on a holiday like at Eid. Other than that, theyhave to pay for a phone card, which often they cantafford, in order to make international calls. And, of

course, there is no internet access, so as time goeson, they are cut off from their families.

Each month, before the RFL team arrives at theIDC, the detainees, who for the moment are always

preselected by the authorities, sit two by two in or-derly lines, with men on one side and women onthe other.

People on the moveAll are wearing distinctive yellow t-shirts em-

blazoned with tahanan Imigresen (immigrationdetainee). Some are already familiar with what havecome to be known as red messages and are hop-ing to receive a reply from loved ones. Others are

hearing about the RFL service for the first time andare shown a poster, which explains the service inlanguages such as Arabic, Chittagonian, Indonesian,Nepali and Persian.

Each time they visit, the ICRC and Malaysian Red

Crescent Society teams set up desks and chairs in anempty room, which is usually used for weekly me di-cal visits by the Malaysian Ministry of Health.

The RFL team always meets detainees in a room

away from the cells, says Max Weigmann, deputyhead of the ICRC regional delegation in Kuala Lum-pur, explaining that the visits offering RFL servicesare completely different from the ICRC detention

visits, which are also undertaken here to check onthe conditions and welfare of detainees.

In most countries where ICRC works in deten-tion settings, RFL services are integrated into itsone-on-one meetings with detainees. While Red

Cross messages could be part of that visit, the mainpurpose is to speak about prison conditions and

treatment of inmates. The RFL meetings organizedwith the Malaysian Red Crescent Society are differ-

ent and focus entirely on the process of relayingmessages from the detainees, which in itself can bea complicated process.

RFL with migrants is very different and, in most

cases, less sensitive for the authorities than in aconflict situation, says Djuly. Its also a lot morecomplicated than in a natural disaster becauseyoure dealing with people from many countries,with different languages and all kinds of different

situations.In an emergency or conflict, you tend to hear

similar stories and are mainly tracing people whoare still in their own countries. RFL for migrants is to-

tally different because you are dealing with peopleon the move.

The complexity of each human story is evidentduring the monthly RFL visit to Lenggeng. IDC regu-

lations require that all the messages be written inEnglish. So it can take some time before the infor-mation is extracted and written down on the form.

It takes almost three hours to collect 22 Red Crossmessages. A number of the detainees are unable to

read or write. The vast majority cannot speak Eng-lish and rely on their co-detainees who have learntMalay or have a smattering of English to help themconvey their messages to the team.

One by one, stories are told and messages arecollected. There is the young man from Nepal whowas tricked into working on a remote plantation andran away. Next, three Indian men explain to a Tamil-

speaker from the Malaysian Red Crescent Societythat they want to contact their wives and ask themto buy their plane tickets home.

Then young women from Cambodia, Myanmar

and Uganda, all arrested for various irregularitieswith paperwork and visas, come forward wanting towrite to parents and grandparents. Its an unspokenreality that many women are trafficked into prostitu-

tion in Malaysia but many are too ashamed to telltheir families.

Some detainees are hesitant about using theRCM service. It sometimes happens that detain-ees are reluctant to fill out an RCM for fear of

worrying their families or feeling ashamed thatthis has happened to them, says Lim. We try topersuade them but some people just dont wantto be found.

Once an RCM is written, there is also a furtherchallenge of ensuring the address and contact infor-

mation are correct so the message can be deliveredsuccessfully.

Phone numbers, addresses and other contactinformation often get lost in the chaos of the jour-ney or sometimes names are not spelt correctly,explains Djuly as she points to one form in whichnear to the coffee factory has been neatly written

in the address section. Plus many family membersmove around or become scattered, making tracingdifficult.

The detainees have no writing paper, so some de -

tainees have written out important phone numberson the back of chewing gum wrappers or noodle

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Despite all the

new technology

and things like

Facebook, which

can be very useful,

the Red Cross

message is still very

important.

Lim Mei Chin, RFL officer,

Malaysian Red Crescent Society

K This 24-year-old migrant from

Mali stands inside a refugee

centre in Spains North African

enclave Melilla, 19 March 2014.

Photo: REUTERS/Juan Medina

LLim Mei Chin, Malaysian Red

Crescents RFL officer, says Red

Cross messages are still a crucial

tool because many relatives of

migrants do not have phones

or computers. Often they have

changed phone numbers, or the

migrants have lost the phone

numbers of their loved ones.



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packets and painstakingly copy down the digitsonto the RCM forms.

Sometimes we can get permission to get theirmobiles phones back from the lockers so we canfind a number someone is looking for, says Lim

while scanning through the messages for potentiallysensitive words, which are blacked out with a pen.We always have to explain to them that they canonly write family news, she adds. The authorities

check all the RCMs so we want to protect their [de-tainees] security and take out anything that couldbe seen as critical or sensitive.

A reliable toolIn the absence of reliable contact information, mo-bile phones and internet access, Lim stresses thatthe Red Cross message, first set up 100 years ago,

remains a key tool for modern tracing work.Despite all the new technology and things like

Facebook, which can be very useful, the Red Crossmessage is still very important, she says. We still

need to use the RCM forms because not everyonehas connectivity and sometimes they dont knowthe phone numbers or their families moved away along time ago. Now we can scan the form and e -mail

it to our colleagues in National Societies and theirbranches to hand out in the villages or wherever. Itsstill a good way of working.

As each case is processed, Ramlan and his staffhover in the background taking a curious interest

in what is taking place. Over the past three years,

the ICRC and Malaysian Red Crescent Society haveslowly become accepted and understood withinthe detention centre. But there are s till challenges interms of communication and a key part the processis managing expectations of the detainees.

There is no guarantee that the messages willreach the intended person or that the detainee willreceive a response. As Ramlan says, the rate of replyto RCMs can be slow and is often a disappointment

to some detainees. But, he adds, If even one personis helped, it is a s uccess.

Every link mattersPerhaps, but with millions of people on the move,and many of them detained or staying discreetly incountries along the migratory route, will the Move-

ments RFL services be encompassing enough tooffer a reliable, global messaging service in the age

of cell phones, Google and Facebook?Clearly, in detention settings where communica-

tions are limited, the Red Cross message continuesto play a major role. And the Movements worldwidegrass-roots presence makes it uniquely suited fortaking on this global humanitarian task.

Indeed, cooperation is strong on RFL and migra-tion issues in many regions and efforts towardsexpanding collaboration in this area are ongoing.In South-East Asia and the Pacific islands, for exam-ple, tracing requests often come in to the Malaysian

Red Crescent Society from the Australian Red Cross,

as many migrants have settled in Australia or havebeen detained within its jurisdiction. Or they comefrom families in conflict-affected countries such asAfghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Syria who con-tact their local Red Cross or Red Crescent for help in

finding out what has happened to their loved ones.But what happens when there are weak links in

the chain? In some countries along the migratoryroute, in Indonesia for example, neither the ICRC

nor the National Society has access to migrant de-tainees. In other countries, the National Society itselfdoes not have robust RFL services.

For many National Societies, RFL is not always a

priority because there is no conflict and, therefore,no urgent need, explains the ICRCs Weigmann,adding that the consistent training and support ofspecialized RFL teams would ultimately be morebeneficial than the sudden mobilizing of non-

trained RFL staff to respond to a sudden-onsetemergency.

For these and other reasons, the Movementsincreased engagement on migration, which was

formalized in 2007 with a declaration during the30th International Conference of the Red Cross andRed Crescent, has generated considerable internaldebate.

Some have expressed concern that the Move-ment, and particularly National Societies, do nothave the resources and capacity to tackle such acomplex issue as migration and that other expert or-ganizations, such as the International Organization

for Migration, the United Nations Refugee Agencyand other grass-roots non-governmental organiza-tions, already have this specific mandate.

With RFL, for example, if there are weak links in

the Movements RFL services along the worlds manymigration trails, is it running the risk of offering falsehopes to migrant detainees, refugees or others whofill out Red Cross messages?

For the Malaysian Red Crescent Society, RFL onlybecame a priority in 2004, when it trained 500volunteers across its 15 branches. RFL had neverbeen a priority in the branches and most of themdidnt even know it was a service we provided,

says Djuly. So the training was very basic, just anintroduction to the service, the RCM forms andhow to fill them out.

Malaysian Red Crescent team members acknowl-

edge that scant human and financial resources make

RFL work a challenge for a number of reasons. A lot

of our volunteers are medics, or medical students,or in full-time jobs like teaching, so this means theyare not available on weekdays, explains Jaya Maru-than, head of international relations at the Malaysian

Red Crescent. This creates a problem because theRFL visits can only happen on weekdays, so oftenwe have to use volunteers who have not had thetraining.

RFL visits may also require another kind of train-ing: psychosocial support. Interaction in oftenhighly charged and emotional environments canbe demanding on both the RFL team and thedetainees. Our visits are almost a form of psycho-

social support, says Lim. Just talking can be ofgreat help. She cites the example of the English-speaking African detainees who simply relish theopportunity to speak to someone and express

themselves.But over time you do notice the change in many of

the migrants, she says. Their spirits become low andthey start to look dishevelled. But we are not trained

to deal with depression and psychosocial issues.Irrespective of debates over Movement strate-

gies on migration, its clear to those meeting withmigrants and taking their messages that their effortsare making a difference, even if it is a small one, in

this growing global humanitarian crisis.Often the detainees just want to talk and con-

nect, agrees Djuly, again stressing the importanceof the RCM service. Just by writing something down

in an RCM, they know that someone knows they arethere.n

ByJessica SallabankJessica Sallabank is a freelance journalist based in Sydney, Australia.

*Notherreal name

Today I was able to

write my first Red

Cross message to

my mother, which

has given me some

hope.

Catherine, a detainee

and migrant from Uganda,

being held at the Lenggeng

detention centre, south of

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

L Lim Mei Chin, Malaysian Red

Crescents Restoring Family Links

officer, helps Catherine write a

message to her family in Uganda.


KThis Ethiopian woman, along

with many others, was deported

from Saudi Arabia late last year.

Upon her return, volunteers from

the Ethiopia Red Cross helped her

reconnect with family members

and provided food, first aid and

other forms of assistance.

Photo:Berhanu Gezahegn/Ethiopia Red

CrossSociety

WebextraRed Cross messages in the Facebook ageCan the Red Cross message survive in the age of Googles PeopleFinder, Facebook and the nearly

ubiquitous cell phone. To read more about how the Movements efforts to restore family links are

responding to new technologies, visit www.redcross.int .


7/17

says Sana Tarabishi, the communications officer atthe National Societys Aleppo branch. After a fewmonths, while the conflict grew harsher, our teamswere abducted and attacked many times, which in

turn forced them to stop their work in areas whereclashes were taking place. They turned their at-tention instead to providing first-aid services todisplaced people inside collective shelters.

Such stories give a glimpse of the challenges,

fears and frustrations that the National Societysvolunteers and staff endure. They tell not only ofindividual courage for which there is plenty ofevidence but also of the commitment, compe-

tence and solidarity that has come to define theSyrian Arab Red Crescent Society response.

This bloody civil war, which has turned oncethriving communities into a maze of rubble-filled

alleyways and crumbled buildings, could easilyhave torn this National Society apart. Instead, theSARC has scaled up and transformed itself from a

10 | R E D C R O S S R E D C R E S C E N T | I S S U E 2 . 2 0 1 4 I S SU E 2 . 2 0 1 4 | R E D C R O S S R E D C R E S C E N T | 11

Lessonsof warChallenged by three years of civil war, the

Syrian Arab Red Crescent has given the

world a case study in the value of neutral,

independent and impartial volunteer action.

LIKE MANY VOLUNTEERS and staff members atthe Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), Feras Far-ras has grown used to the sound of explodingmortar shells and gunfire near-constant and loud

reminders that the work he and his colleagues do isamong the most dangerous occupations on earth.

A water and sanitation coordinator for the SARC,Farras and his team bring critically needed waterand sanitation supplies through front lines and

checkpoints in order to reach populations cut offfrom basic services.

Each trip begins with negotiation. Before startinga mission, we send a message to all parties on the

ground to get the ir approval, to ensure we have anagreed ceasefire, he says, adding that during eachcall, he explains the National Societys mandate, thepurpose of the mission and the spe cific places to be

visited. We do not enter any hot area without ap-provals from all parties on the ground. We have toensure the safety of our volunteers and convoys.

Even then, there are no guarantees. In one of

our missions to the eastern areas of Deir Ezzor, evenafter coordination and approval from all parties, wewere detained by one of the parties because theydidnt receive information of our entry, he recalls.

We explained ourselves to them many times, but

no way. Fortunately, the groups leader had previ-ously heard about the Syrian Arab Red Crescentswork, so he gave the order and we were released.

An honour born of tragedyStories like this one are commonplace among vol-

unteers, whose attempts to distribute food, aid thewounded or deliver water or fuel are often delayedor thwarted by fighting or armed groups active inthe countrys three-year-old civil conflict.

In Aleppo, for example, volunteers have faced ex-

treme dangers and ultimately had to stop first aid insome areas due to intense fighting. First-aid teamswere working around the clock to help people,

L The red crescent emblem,

a flashing light and a flag

representing their National Society

is their only protection. Driving

through the area known as New

Clock Square, a team of SyrianArab Red Crescent volunteers and

medics support returning residents

and those who trapped for months

in war-torn city of Homs.

Photo:Laila Tawakkol/SARC,Homsbranch

relatively typical, peacetime auxiliary into an or-ganization that is a flagship for the Movement, anessential partner for many external organizationshoping to help the people of Syria and an inspira-

tion for humanitarians around the world.This transformation is a badge of honour born

from the tragedy of a war, a conflict that has claimedmore than 120,000 lives 36 of them Syrian ArabRed Crescent volunteers and staff killed during the

course of their humanitarian duties. (Seven Palestin-ian Red Crescent workers have also been killed whiledelivering aid during the Syrian crisis). But the storyof the Red Crescent response to this brutal conflict

didnt spring from nowhere: well before the firstshots were fired during the 2011 protests, the SyrianArab Red Crescent had laid the groundwork.

From early on, the strong network of local

branches, the close relationship between manage-ment and staff, and years of training on disasterpreparedness, community-led emergency response

As the conflict grew

harsher, our teams

were abducted and

attacked many

times, which in turn

forced them to stop

their tasks in areas

where clashes were

taking place.

Sana Tarabishi,

communications officer at the

SARCs Aleppo branch


8/17


9/17


LATER, NORI AWAKESINSIDE A LARGE ROOM

FILLED WITH WOMEN ANDMEN. SHE RISES AND TRIESTO MOVE TO THE WINDOW.

SUDDENLY SHE FALLSDOWN, COMPLETELY LIMP.

SUDDENLY, BOTH THE ROBOT ANDTHE VOLUNTEER ARE PARALYZED

BY NON-LETHAL WEAPONS.INSIDE AN ICRC AIR-ROVER, A DELEGATE

CONTACTS THE ARMED OPPOSITION.

BACK AT THE COMMAND CENTRE...

INSIDE THE DETENTIONCENTRE, WATER IS POURINGTHROUGH THE WINDOWS.

HE CALLS THE ARMED FORCES.

THE ICRC ARRIVES AT THEDETENTION CENTRE.

IT WAS A FAIRLY ROUTINE DAY, 17 APRIL 2064,THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST GENEVA CONVENTION,

WHEN AN IFRC AERIAL RESPONSE VEHICLE RECEIVED AN ALERT FROMAN ICRC COLLEAGUE THAT FIGHTING HAD BROKEN OUT IN THE CITY OF

SHILANO. GOVERNMENT FORCES RESPONDED WITH FIGHTER DRONES ANDA PLATOON OF ROBOTIC SOLDIERS, WHILE REBELS RESORTED TO VARIOUS

HIGH-TECH TACTICS. SUDDENLY, A CYBER ATTACK FROM AN UNKNOWNSOURCE CUT OFF CONTROL OF THE ROBOTIC SOLDIERS, LEAVING OUR

VOLUNTEER FACE-TO-FACE WITH A RENEGADE ROBOT SOLDIER.

Humanitarian action

2064

AS WATER FLOODS THE STREETS, THE NATIONALSOCIETY AND IFRC FOLLOW HANK THE ROBOTIC

dog as it picks up traces of Noris heartbeat.


10/17


11/17


We need to talk...

I read that,

too. It said

that 57 per cent of

volunteers belong to four

National Societies and that

ten National Societies

have 75 per cent of

volunteers.

...about volunteering!

Thesheer

scale of our

volunteer base is still

a great strength. As the

report notes, this gives us a real

connection to the communities we

serve. But the disparity challenges

our claim to be a truly global

network that reaches into

communities everywhere.

Thestudy

says there are

many factors for thesedisparities: cultural views on

formal volunteering, competition

in the humanitarian sector,

government funding levels

and models, etc.

Yes, but these factors

cannot explain such significant

disparities, which we can see even

among countries with similar

cultural, political and economic

conditions. Interviews conducted

as part of the review revealed there

were very mixed views, approaches

and capacity when it comes to

volunteering.One of

the big questionsis Who is a volunteer? Some

National Societies include blood

donors, while others include those who

have been trained but only respond when

there is a disaster. This study sought

to count only active volunteers but

the authors say that maybe we need

a radical rethink of what we

understand volunteerism

to be.

Yes,but

remember the

data are not perfect. Also,

we have to remember this

isnt all about numbers and the

quantity of volunteers. There are

deeper issues of the quality

of our volunteers and thework they do.

Sure,but

as the report notes,

volunteers are getting

harder to motivate and retain;

communities are more diverse and

their challenges more complex. Weare shifting from being a Movement of

humanitarians to an agency dominated by

contract-based service delivery. According

to the report: Our engagement with

volunteers may still be among the

largest in the world. However it is

under threat.

To seechartsandmapsthat explain moreaboutthe stateof volunteeringin theRedCrossand RedCrescentMovement,visit www.ifrc.org/data .Footnote:A2011IFRCstudycalled TheValueof Volunteersestimatedaglobaltotalof13.1millionvolunteers.Whyisthenumbernow17million?Thedifferencecanbe attributedtojustthreeNationalSocieties(China,IranandJapan), whichbetweenthemadd5 millionvolunteerstothe2011total.Duringthe2011study,thenumbersforthesethreeNationalSocietieswereobtainedbyextrapolationratherthanthroughconsultationwiththeNationalSociety.

I just read

this new study

by the IFRC called the

Global Review of Volunteering.

Apparently, there are roughly

17 million volunteers among the

Movements 189 National Societies.

Thats a big number. But the study

found that many National Societies

are struggling with volunteerism

and that the distribution of

volunteers is extremely

uneven.

Apparently

there is some credible

evidence that suggests the volunteer

base may be either stagnating or even

shrinking. Data for 43 National Societies

since 2009, for example, suggest a 10

per cent decline in the numbers of

volunteers.

A new IFRC study, The Global Review of Volunteering, says the R ed Cross and Red Crescent Movement can claim 17 million volunteers, represented by the 17 figures above. However

57 per cent of these volunteers belong to four National Societies

Ten National Societies have 75 per cent of volunteers worldwide

There are 100 National Societies which, combined, have just 1.25 per cent of the global volunteer workforce

54 per cent of National Societies have a centralized database but only half of these actually think their database is accurate

1.25%

54%

57%

75%

A new study finds that our volunteer network is not consistently strong in many parts of the world and that a serious conversation about volunteering is overdue.

Perhaps.

But the question of

numbers is not just about the

size of our workforce. According

to the report, It paints a picture

about our capacity to engage with and

connect to communities. Its about

our capacity to mobilize people in

support of themselves and

others.


12/17

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Once near to being eliminated in many

parts of the world, dengue fever is making

a deadly comeback. Experts say only a

sustained and vigorous effort will put an end

to this preventable disease.

WHEN IT COMES TO SAVING lives from in-fectious disease, knowledge is often thebest antidote. Alejandra Mendoza-Rivera,who lives in Leon, near Nicaraguas Pacific coast,knows this first hand. She credits the informationabout dengue fever brought to her by NicaraguanRed Cross volunteers for saving the lives of her two

children, Osmari, 2, and 12-year-old Francisco.Both children had high fever so we went to the

health centre because I was scared that it could bedengue, she says. They gave me the order for theexams and confirmed it.

Thanks to the Red Cross visit, Mendoza-Rivera saysshe also takes even more care in cleaning her home. Iput into practice everything I learned during the pres-entations, she says. For example, keeping the water

receptacles protected, cleaning my yard, putting cov-ers on barrels, being careful and always clean.

A mosquito-borne viral infection, dengue causesa flu-like illness and can occasionally develop into

the life-threatening severe dengue. About 2.5 percent of people who contract dengue die. Withoutproper preventive health and care services, fatalityrates can exceed 20 per cent.

The outbreak in Nicaragua in 2013 had already

claimed 14 lives by June, with 57 additional severecases and 4,000 people affected by the dengue virusin what authorities confirmed as a 300 per cent in-crease in dengue cases over the prior year.

Now that the Red Cross volunteers have cometo help us two days a week, we have been able tofumigate and remove rubbish more often, and inthis way were able to eliminate the Aedes aegypti

mosquito responsible for dengue transmission during its aquatic phase, says Silvio Pirado, a

technician specializing in vector- and rodent-bornediseases at the Malpaisillo Health Centre in Leon.

Dengue and severe dengue affects most tropical

and sub-tropical countries in the Asia-Pacific region,the Americas, Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.Over the past 50 years, dengue has spread from ninecountries to more than 100 nations, making it the

most rapidly-spreading vector-borne disease.

A preventable diseaseBut it shouldnt have to be that way. During the1950s and 1960s, the Pan-American Health Organi-zation adopted a public health strategy to fight

dengue, which successfully reduced, and in certaincases eliminated, the disease in the Americas, ex-plains IFRC Under Secretary General Walter Cotte.

With time this momentum was lost. Dengue

cases were once practically non-existent in coun-tries like Brazil, Colombia and Mexico; today, these

countries are counted among the top ten most en-demic countries in the world.

Today, almost half of the worlds populationlives in dengue-endemic countries. The number ofcases has risen from 15,000 per year in the 1960s toroughly 390 million today. Once seen as an urbanand peri-urban disease, dengue is increasingly be-

coming a challenge in rural areas.In Colombia, for example, the caseload has gone

from 5.2 per 100,000 in the 1990s to 18.1 cases per100,000 in the past five years. The increase in cases

is a result of population growth, unplanned urbani-zation, lack of environmental sanitation, increasedlong-distance travel and ineffective mosquito control.

Insecurity, displacement and violence can also play

a role. Nearly 80 per cent of the 30,000 residents ofGuapi, in Colombias Cauca department, which suf-fered a dengue outbreak in 2013, have no access tosafe drinking water. The municipality has no wastedisposal or wastewater treatment plant so most

waste is dumped directly into the river or the ocean.Similarly, when Paraguay suffered its worst

dengue outbreak in 2011, with a total of 38,206 con-firmed cases and 62 reported deaths, the highest

numbers of cases and fatalities hit both the relativelyrural department of Alto Parana and the metropoli-tan area around the countrys capital, a sprawlingurban zone encompassing ten cities and home to

more than 2 million inhabitants.

The urban breeding groundNew communities on the city outskirts are over-crowded, lack solid waste management services andhave inadequate water and sewer systems. Mean-

while, the dengue-carrying mosquito can breedanywhere from puddles on building sites, barrels ofdrinking water, stagnant drains to vases of flowers inpeoples homes.

Quietkiller

These are some of the reasons that National So-cieties, the IFRC and other organizations dealingwith dengue say its time for a dramatic change in

approach. Dengue eradication must shift from epi-sodic, isolated dengue eradication campaigns toholistic, concerted and long-term efforts aimed ateliminating the conditions that nurture the disease.

Many Red Cross and Red Crescent efforts, for exam-ple, are funded through the Disaster Relief EmergencyFund (DREF), which allocates money quickly in re-sponse to emergencies such as outbreaks. Theseinjections of money have made a significant impact

in many countries in terms of reducing the outbreaksdamage, and they have had some long-term residualeffects in helping National Societies to partner withother local and national organizations, set up depots

with supplies and materials, and develop capacityand knowledge for ongoing interventions.

But they are not enough to keep the dengue ef-fort going and therefore prevent the next round

of outbreaks. Whats needed, health officials say, islong-term investment in integrated programmingand community-level initiatives that lead to long-term behaviour change.

Much of this work is already being done by Na-

tional Societies. It just needs to be scaled up. TheParaguayan Red Cross, for example, coordinateswith the municipalities and health centres to elimi-nate mosquito breeding grounds and promote

sanitation and case detection. It also supported pre-ventive actions organized by the Ministry of Healthand various city councils through community inter-vention and education. The National Society also

carried out a dengue-awareness communicationcampaign using different mass media outlets.

Practice pays offSimilarly, in El Salvador, dengue prevention is partof an ongoing health programme funded by the

Norwegian Red Cross that tackles preventive andenvironmental health at the community level. Inconjunction with local family health units and otherorganizations, the National Society is involved in

clean-up campaigns, water purification, fumigationand preventive health seminars. These go hand-in- hand with dental health services, sexual andreproductive health discussions and nutrition as-sessments, among other activities.

Prevention efforts also are often integral to theemergency response. In July 2014, for example,when Salvadorean authorities declared a yellowalert for another mosquito-borne disease called chi-

kungunya, the IFRCs US$184,000 DREF allocationsupported National Societys efforts to stop the im-mediate outbreak and prevent future epidemics ofchikungunya and dengue.

In areas that have sustained prevention efforts,there is evidence that the investment of time andmoney pays off. In 2001, for example the Maldivessaw a record 2,909 cases of dengue. Through itsvolunteering network, the Maldivian Red Crescent

raised awareness in schools, carried out communityclean-up activities and distributed information, ed-ucation and communication materials. By 2013, thecases of dengue had decreased by 155 per cent in

eight of the ten atolls where the National Society isoperating.n

By Gennike Mayers andEnrique GuevaraGennike Mayers and Enrique Guevara are IFRC communications officers

based in the Americas.

Whats needed,

health officials

say, is long-term

investment

in integrated

programming and

community-level

initiatives that

lead to long-term

behaviour change.

L Tatiana Marn from the

Paraguayan Red Cross teaches

Costa Rican school children

how to prevent two mosquito-

borne diseases, dengue and

chikungunya, as part of the

activities carried by the Costa Rican

Red Cross in August 2014.

Photo:Vladimir Castro/IFRC


13/17


14/17


BEKELE GELETAS CAREER has beennothing if not diverse and full ofchallenges. In his home countryof Ethiopia, he worked as a transportofficial before being arrested and de-tained as a political prisoner. Later,he served as his National Societys

secretary general before leavingEthiopia to become a refugee inCanada, where he eventually gota job with the Canadian RedCross Society. After stints

working at the IFRC secre-tariat in Geneva, then backagain in Canada, he ap-plied for the job of secretary

general of the worlds largest volun-teer-based humanitarian organization.As his tenure as IFRC secretary generalcame to a close, we asked him what hes

learned and what he sees as the future ofRed Cross Red Crescent humanitarian action.

RCRC: How has your life experience affected theway you see humanitarian assistance?Geleta:Helping people to survive with the basic ne-cessities is one thing. But what is really important

in life is to respect the dignity of the human being.A humanitarian who doesnt combine this in hisor her work is insufficient, or incomplete, inmy view. The individuals we are tr yingto help should be given the feel-

ing that they are responsiblefor their own lives. We will

support them, but the decision is theirs, including

whether to accept the assistance or not.

Do humanitarians sometimes not show thisrespect?It is not the intention. The overwhelming will is todo good, to support people. But its only effectiveif its about engaging the people you are trying tohelp. Dont just go and deliver; respect people and

listen to them. See what they want and how they seewhat you are trying to offer. Now, more organiza-tions are beginning to have this approach but for along time, it was march, deliver and save. It was the

charity mentality.

How do you see the IFRC culture of assistance in thisregard?It is changing due to various influences and due to dif-ferent experiences weve had. I believe we are working

within a system that is changing towards an approachthats about the participation of the people affected

and therefore accountability to the beneficiary.

During your tenure as secretary general, youoften said that we need to think of what we doas a form of development, not just as emergency

response. Can you ex plain y our thi nking on this?The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement hasparticipated in development right from day one.

Just imagine first-aid training for one person in afamily. It helps to sustain the productive capacityof the family.

Lets take preventive health. This is a contribution

to development. Or take disaster risk reduction, orcapacity building of National Societies. These areall important contributions to development. Help-ing people to become meaningful participants inthe social and economic life of the country is also

a huge contribution to development. That is whatthe Red Cross and Red Crescent does.

Where we have failed is to profile this in such away as to access development funding. Weve been

working on all this using humanitarian funding. Ifwe had started accessing development fundingsooner, we would have been able to expand our ef-forts much further.

What do you say to those who are concerned that ifwe get too engaged with long-term developmentfunding and projects, then we may not be seenas neutral in some areas where big developmentfunds and agencies are not perceived as neutral?We are not moving towards big road building pro-

jects or building up industries. And we will continueto do the kind of work we do in any case. The onlything we have added is to accept this reality and sayclearly that we are going to be part of it.

There is a technological revolution going onaround the world. What are your thoughts aboutthe opportunities this offers?Whats going on now is a civilizational transition.The way people think and the way they connect

are going to be dramatically different in the nearfuture. Peoples expectations are changing andthere is demand for change in many aspects of oursociety.

For example, in terms of humanitarian assistance,technology now allows members of the diaspora (ofcountries affected by disaster) to transfer money totheir relatives or friends at home simply by pressing

a button. This reduces the need for the humanitar-ian middleman.

Thats why we need to think of bigger and bet-ter ways of linking up our membership with whatwe are doing in the field. On the giving side, we

should be able to devise better ways of using

technology to trace donations between donorsand the National Society branches where peopleare distributing assistance and helping people in

the field.I believe the intermediary role will still be very

important. But its about being a humanitarian in-termediary in a technology savvy way. The benefit

is a lot of cost savings for the whole global healthsystem and a lot of efficiency in humanitarian assis-tance. But there has to be a change in the way wethink and the way we do things.

What changes are necessary?It wont be like it used to be where our job was

mainly to deliver things. No. Its more about help-ing households become active participants in thegrowth-making decisions about their lives, even insmall ways.

It is going to be a role that contributes to self-sufficiency, that helps the vulnerable become moreindependent. It will no longer be about charity.

What experiences have helped shape this view?I remember meeting a young man in Africa a fewyears ago and he asked me, Why are contributingto our agony? I said, What do you mean? He said,

You buy things, bring them here, distribute themand when you go, we are left with nothing. Arentyou an African? Dont you feel anything? If you arean African, work in the right way or leave us alone.It was extremely painful and it has made a big dif-

ference in terms of shaping the way I think abouthumanitarian assistance. n

Web extraFor more of our interview with Bekele Geleta, see

www.redcross.int.

The end of aidas we know itOutgoing IFRC Secretary General Bekele Geleta says the future

will bring radical changes in the way humanitarian

assistance is conceived and delivered.

JFormer IFRC Secretary General

Bekele Geleta speaking at the

inaugural African Leadership

Forum, in Johannesburg, South

Africa, November 2010.

Photo:Devon Krige/IFRC

Dont just go

and deliver;

respect people

and listen to them

Now, more

organizations are

beginning to have

this approach but

for a long time,

it was march,

deliver and save.

It was the charity

mentality.


15/17


THE SCENE OUTSIDE the bus window wasapocalyptic. It resembled the city of Hiro-shima in the aftermath of the atomic bombin August 1945. Where a town once stood was nowdetritus. The frames of shattered buildings dotteda flattened landscape of rubble, twisted metal, up-turned cars and boats.

Suwarti, dressed in her Japanese Red Cross uni-form, sat and stared, expressionless, at the carnage.Its upsetting. Im speechless, she told a journalistfilming her for a TV news report.

The Indonesian nurse had travelled to the town

of Yamada, in north-east Japan, with five col-leagues from the Himeji Red Cross hospital, morethan 800 kilometres away. It was April 2011 andaround six weeks after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake

struck under the Pacific Ocean and sent toweringtsunami waves crashing into communities alongthe Tohoku coastline.

The destruction brought back memories for Su-

warti of her experiences in the Indonesian city ofBanda Aceh, following the devastating tsunami of26 December 2004. She arrived there with a relief

team from her public hospital in the capital, Jakarta,about a week after tectonic plates ruptured off thecoast. Another team had already started treat-ing survivors at a makeshift evacuation centre, butthere was a shortage of water, food and medicine,

says the 36-year-old Java native, sitting in a m eetingroom in her Himeji hospital.

It took about two weeks to come to terms withsome of the shocking s cenes I saw, she says of that

time almost a decade ago. I felt tired and keptthinking about all the people crying and those whohad lost their families and houses, and didnt knowwhat to do.

Seven years later, in Japans Iwate Pre fecture in 2011,Suwarti found herself at a high school that was servingas an evacuation centre for 400 local residents.

At the evacuation centre, there were six high-school students who lost their parents in the tsunami.

I spoke several times to one who was suffering a lot.She thanked me for coming and told me she wantedto become a nurse like me. I also talked to many el-derly women, for I understood how important it was

to talk to people as part of this kind of care.

Suwarti already had a deep appreciation for thevalue of psychosocial support after her experiencein Aceh in 2004. When we arrived in Aceh, people

were appreciative of us, she says. But more thanjust tre ating injuries, it was important to talk andhold people. Mental support, I realized, was a vitalpart of being a nurse there.

Before heading out to respond to the earthquake

and tsunami in Japan, Suwarti was prepared. Shereceived disaster relief training, including guidanceon how to counsel survivors and the bereaved, andshe completed another course at her hospital in the

summer of 2013.Suwartis determination to help in Tohoku can

be traced back to her experiences in Aceh, whereshe learned that the Japanese Red Cross had sent a

medical team to the area.When my country was in need, lots of different

countries helped us, including the Japanese Red

Cross, she says. In fact, the head of the ER [emer-gency response] here [in Himeji] spent a year and a

half in Aceh and the head surgeon went there for ayear. So I felt that if I could pass the national examand had the chance, I would really like to go andhelp those people in Tohoku.

Suwarti first arrived in Japan in 2008 on a nursingprogramme set up by Japan and Indonesia. Despiteher extensive ER and intensive care experience in herhome country, she still had to pass Japans national

nursing exam. The biggest hurdle was learning Japa-nese, including medical terminology.

Suwarti continued to study intensively for thefive-hour nursing exam and finally, after her thirdattempt, she became one of only 16 foreign nurses

from nearly 400 to pass.In 2013, Suwarti shared her experiences in Tohoku

with trainee nurses and staff at one of Indonesiastop nursing schools, and she has been asked to help

produce an official disaster preparedness and re-sponse manual.

In 2004, we werent prepared for that size ofdisaster and had no experience of disaster relief.

Therefore, we were grateful to receive support fromthe Japanese Red Cross. But Indonesia still needsto learn more about disaster relief. Im very happyto have joined the Japanese Red Cross where I canlearn these kinds of skills.

Disaster can strike at any time and affect any-

one, so as a nurse, I felt I had a duty to h elp in Iwate.I also now feel that I would like to do whatever Ican to help, should another disaster strike in the

future, she says. As a member of the Red Cross, Istrongly feel its my duty to help anyone affectedby disaster no matter what their ethnicity, reli-gion or nationality.

By Nick JonesNick Jones is a freelance journalist based in Tokyo.

My Red CrossRed Crescent story

My Red Cross Red Crescent storyPhoto:NickJones/IFRC

Photo:RedCrescentSocietyoftheIslamicRepublicofIran

ALTHOUGH IM ONLY 20, the Red Crescent hasalready played a very important role in my life.When I was 14, my friends mother had a seri-ous asthma attack while we were walking together inthe street. She had forgotten her inhaler, but luckilythe quick first-aid actions of a passer-by saved her life.It was a very frightening moment but also an impor-

tant one, as the very next day, my friend and I decidedto volunteer with local branch of the Iran Red Cres-cent and learn more about helping people.

For me, being a volunteer with the Iran RedCrescent also gives me a chance to be part of an in-

ternational network. In recent years, I feel that Iranhas become isolated and misunderstood by manycountries, so when the Iran Red Crescent sends helpto disasters overseas and is able to work with other

National Societies, I feel its an opportunity to showpeople that we are more than what is presented inthe media; that what is portrayed of us, of our peo-ple, is not accurate at all. I think being part of the

Red Cross Red Crescent Movement is important forbringing down such political and cultural barriersand prejudices.

SuwartiInterview with an

Indonesian Red

Cross Society nurse,

now working for the

Japane se Red Cross

Society.

AmirBarazandeYouth volunteer with

the Red Crescent

Society of the Islamic

Republic of Iran,

Mashhad city, north-eastern Iran.

MyStoryLaunched on World Red

Cross and Red Crescent Day

on May 8, the year-long

MyStory project shares

personal experiences with

the Movement.


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28 | R E D C R O S S R E D C R E S C E N T | I S S U E 2 . 2 0 1 4

BY A TWIST OF FATE, almost half of my life

has been shaped by my work with the ICRC.In 1992, when war broke out in the former

Yugoslavia, I avoided being drafted by taking a jobwith the chamber of commerce in the small townof Pale that was considered a Serb stronghold. Al-though Pale was not shelled regularly like Sarajevo,

there was a large influx of internally displaced peo-ple and basic supplies became scarce. Money wastight, so I also opened a small video shop to makeends meet. It was thanks to the shop that I first metthe ICRC delegates who were renting films to pass

time during the nightly curfews. At that time, I hadonly heard a little bit about the Red Cross in Bosnia.

I remember, growing up, that on 8 May we could

buy special Red Cross stickers and pins shaped likelittle drops of blood, but other than that I didntknow much about them.

As the conflict continued, I was persuaded toapply to the ICRC as a driver. My father was a car

mechanic so, growing up, I had a spent a lot timehelping in his workshop under our house. I wasoffered the job and before I knew it, I was drivingto pick up an ICRC delegate who was waiting at

the separation line in the Muslim-majority town ofGoradze, a protected enclave in eastern Bosnia. Itwas my first day with the ICRC and I found myselfbeing stopped at the border with nothing but the

vehicle and an enormous high-frequency radio. I

remember how nervous I felt as the border guardsteased me and tested my reaction but as soon asI was waved through, I realized the power and re-spect that the Red Cross emblem can have.

After the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed in1995, I continued to work with the ICRC and startedto travel outside of Bosnia on international reliefmissions in Eritrea, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan and the

Russian Federation. In another twist of fate, I metmy wife Flore, an ICRC protection delegate, whenwe were on mission in Eritrea. Our daughter Mia wasborn a few years later in Indonesia. We got married

when we were in northern Caucasus.

IT WAS AFTER I SAW the consequences of a ter-rible flood that I applied to work with the RedCross of the Peoples Democratic Republic ofKorea. In 1997, I was a student of international re-

lations and, as part of my course, we learnt about

the work of humanitarian organizations. I clearlyremember one day my classmates and I boarded atrain in Pyongyang and travelled to some remotevillages, far in the north of the country. In 1995, a ter-rible flood had destroyed most of the water systems

installed during the 1960s and a lot of the roads tothe villages were also gone. I will never forget thehardship of the people we saw there. We had allheard about the situation from other people, but it

was very sad to see with our own eyes the farmersand their families, even children, walking for hours

just to bring back heavy buckets of clean drinkingwater. However, in some of the villages, we saw the

Red Cross was already there helping and had put intaps, pumps and water tanks. It really left an impres-sion on me and by the time I took the train back,I knew that once I graduated, I wanted to work forthem. I started with the National Society as a health

officer and have been working with the Red CrossRed Crescent Movement ever since. n

sustainable and affordableaccess to water and sanitationservices for all and thus contributetowards achieving the MillenniumDevelopment Goals.AvailableinEnglish

Protect health careposter seriesICRC 2014The young man shown in this vivid,four-colour poster survived becauseboth police and protesters gaveaccess to Red Cross volunteersduring a riot. This is just one ofthe stories told in the new set of

five Health Care in Danger postersreleased by the ICRC. Based onreal cases, the posters show thateven during armed violence, it isstill possible to ensure safe accessto health care and save lives. Theposters are part of the Health Carein Danger campaign aimed atimproving both access to healthcare and the safety of health-caredelivery. They follow an earlierseries that showed the devastatingconsequences when health-careworkers are not respected andpeople cannot access health care.AvailableinEnglishandFrench

PUBLICATIONS

Resources

The FundamentalPrinciples of the RedCross and Red CrescentMovementICRC 2014Humanity, impartiality, neutrality,independence, voluntary service,unity and universality: these sevenFundamental Principles sum upthe Movements ethics and areat the core of its approach tohelping people in need duringarmed conflict, natural disastersand other emergencies. This eight-page pamphlet explains how theprinciples unite the componentsof the Movement and enable themto provide effective, unbiasedassistance to people in need. Theyare mandatory rules of conduct thatthe Movements components arerequired to follow at all times, and

states must respect this necessity.Availablein Arabic,Chinese, English,French,RussianandSpanish

Red Cross Red CrescentClimate Training KitThe Climate Training Kit providesa range of training products toenhance the capacity of Movementstaff and volunteers to engagecommunities on the issue of climatechange. Produced by the RedCross and Red Crescent ClimateCentre, based in the Netherlands,the interactive modules containexercises, games, film clips,presentations, reading material , andexamples from numerous Red Cross

ICRC materials are available from the International Committee of the Red Cross,19 avenue de la Paix, CH-1202 Geneva, Switzerland. www.icrc.org.IFRC materials are available from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red CrescentSocieties, P.O. Box 303, CH-1211 Geneva 19, Switzerland. www.ifrc.org.

Red Crescent National Societies.Download at: www.climatecentre.org/training.AvailableinEnglish

The International RedCross and Red CrescentMovement in the Pacific:Rising to the challengeICRC/IFRC 2014The countries of the Pacific regionare richly diverse in terms of culture,development, infrastructure,location, social dynamics andresources. From vast Australia torecently independent Palau and themany islands of French Polynesia,each nation faces its own challenges.Political and economic security,access to services, geographicalremoteness, natural resourcemanagement, population growthand environmental degradationare all factors that influence

development outcomes forcommunities in the Pacific region.AvailableinEnglish

The Global Water andSanitation Initiative20052025IFRC 2014The Red Cross Red Crescent GlobalWater and Sanitation Initiativepromotes a common but adaptableapproach among National RedCross Red Crescent Societies toestablish large-scale, long-termsustainable water and sanitationprogrammes. It aims to advanceefforts in scaling up equitable,

ICRC cooperationdelegateICRC 2014This 5-minute video clip showshow, when ICRC sometimes teamsup with National Red Cross andRed Crescent Societies in thefield, the cooperation delegate isthere to make sure that, in difficultsituations, the ICRC, IFRC andNational Societies are all workingclosely together and towards thesame goals.AvailableinEnglishandFrench

Madagascar:Plague-free prisonsICRC 2013It might be supposed that theplague has been eradicatedfrom the planet, but it is still rifein countries like the DemocraticRepublic of the Congo orMadagascar. This ten-minute filmshows the efforts being made bythe ICRC and its local partners toprevent an outbreak of plaguein Malagasy prisons whereovercrowding and unsanitaryconditions would help this highlycontagious disease to spread likewildfire.AvailableinEnglish,FrenchandMalagasy

Risk Zones (app)Finnish Red Cross 2014It is impossible to achieve sustainabledevelopment and a permanent

reduction in poverty unless weare able to manage the impactsof various risks on the lives of themost vulnerable people. This is thepremise of a new computer andsmart phone software application,launched by the Finnish Red Cross.The app explains, with colourfulimagery, which parts of the world areaffected by war, disease or naturaldisasters. How do they affect thelives of people and what can theRed Cross Red Crescent do to help?

Download the Risk Zones tabletapplication free of charge from anyapp store.Availablein English,Finnish andSwedish

Safer Access practicalresource pack (CD-ROM)ICRC 2014The materials in the Safer Accesspractical resource pack CD-ROMhave been created with and forNational Societies to help themcarry out their humanitarian workin challenging circumstances. ThisCD-ROM includes an interactiveguide for National Societies, threeNational Society case studies andnine National Society experiences,a print-ready Safer Access poster, agraphics package and flyers in fourlanguages, among other tools. Thepack also includes Staying alive,which provides guidance on safetyand security guidelines in conflictareas.Availablein English

MEDIA

I S S U E 2 . 2 0 1 4 | R E D C R O S S R E D C R E S C E N T | 29

My Red Cross Red Crescent story

My Red Cross Red Crescent story

ZeljkoFilipovicDeputy head of the

ICRCs economic

security unit. From

Sarajevo, Bosnia and

Herzegovina. Now

living in Geneva,

Switzerland.

Kum Ju HoOperational develop-

ment and youth focal

point at the IFRCs

South-East Asia re-gional office. From the

Democratic Peoples

Republic of Korea.

Photo:DPRKRedCross

Photo:ICRC


17/17

Red Cross Red Crescent Magazine: Lost in migration

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Transcript of Red Cross Red Crescent Magazine: Lost in migration