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Participants crouch down in groups on the ground of a hotel in Ottawa with dried spaghetti sticks and marshmallows. The aim of the team-building exercise is to work together to come up with a way to create the highest structure topped by a marshmallow. The exercise is part of a training of future Red Cross Operations Managers.

Recovering from Cyclone Pam wasn’t easy for Karie Manarruru, who lost his leg in a construction accident when he was just 27. Thanks to Vanuatu Red Cross, people with disabilities such as Karie are one of the groups given the highest priority in their recovery operation. 

For the past 26 years, Phyllis Wiscombe of Arnes, Manitoba, has given her time to help people affected by disasters, train future disaster responders and improve the Red Cross’s capacity to help people in need. For her outstanding contributions to the movement, Wiscombe recently received the Order of the Red Cross, the highest honour the Canadian Red Cross can give a volunteer.

Dr. Gwendolyn Pang, Secretary General of the Philippine Red Cross, recently paid us a visit at Canadian Red Cross offices in Ontario and British Columbia, where she reaffirmed the strong partnership formed with us in the wake of the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan which struck her country two years ago.

The Round-up offers a weekly sample of what our sister Red Cross Societies are working on around the world.

How do some countries and regions escape relatively unscathed from major disasters, while others struggle to recover from these events? Many factors are at play, and while it’s impossible to compare one disaster with another, it’s clear that the level of preparedness and the local capacity to respond quickly to the disaster can significantly improve the outcomes.

Released today by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), this year’s World Disasters Report takes a look at the importance of local actors, individuals and local groups such as National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, taking action as first responders at the scene of a crisis.

With 20 other highly-trained Red Cross delegates, plus a mobile field hospital and operating theatre, Lynn flew into Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu shortly after the first earthquake.

Within a few days, an entire Basic Health Care facility had taken shape near the remote village of Khokundole. The night they finished, Lynn pulled on her toque and climbed into a sleeping bag, knowing her real work would start the next day.