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It's hard to believe that I have already been in Dhunche one week. This morning when I got up, the sky was clear enough to see the snow-capped mountains in Tibet and Langtang Mountain. Usually, this region is a trekker’s paradise, but the earthquakes and ongoing instability of the landscape have changed that for now.

When pre-election violence broke out in Burundi in April, volunteers with the Burundi Red Cross were among the first to respond. The protests led to a number of casualties, and forced more than 96,000 people to seek safety in neighbouring countries.

June 20^th marked the two-year anniversary of the Alberta Floods. High River residents gathered together to celebrate how far they’ve come since that devastating day.

Two years after severe flooding damaged thousands of properties across southern Alberta, the repairs on Chuck Shifflett’s historic High River home are nearly complete. But, like many in the hardest hit regions, Shifflett and his neighbours are still recovering from the disaster. Down his street, four homes were eventually torn down, and just two were rebuilt so far.

The Canadian Red Cross continues to offer a range of programs and services to people affected by the floods in 2013. This includes Red Cross funding for Samaritan’s Purse, Habitat for Humanity, Mennonite Disaster Services and World Renew to help dozens of families in High River and the Calgary area as they rebuild or repair their homes.

Losing contact with family members can cause enormous anxiety, especially in the midst of disaster or conflict. Sometimes separation will last for days or months and sometimes it will last for years, as it did for Sadia and her siblings.

Dash Bare Sagar arrived in a Dadaab refugee camp in 2011 following continued clashes in his home area of Jilib, Somalia, which left his uncle dead. He managed to escape with his mother, wife, as well as five children (two from his deceased uncle) and travelled to Kenya where he became a community leader in his camp and a Kenya Red Cross volunteer.

After almost two weeks away from her family, Kadiatu’s Ebola tests came back negative and she was allowed to return home where she was reunited with her family; everyone that is, except for her father, whose fate is still unknown. Like many families in Sierra Leone, the loss of the family breadwinner is having a profound impact on the family. Kadiatu recalls her experience and her hopes for the future.

Fortunately, the roads reopened within a week of the earthquake and we were able to begin transporting supplies by truck.  The team moved quickly to set up camp, assist the local medical staff with their workload and begin mobile clinics on foot to reach otherwise inaccessible communities around Dhunche.