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In Mali, every year between July and September, heavy rains fall across the country. Some regions, such as Sikasso, are hit harder than others and the damage goes far beyond material goods. Families are left homeless, flooded areas quickly become breeding grounds for diseases such as malaria, which is a leading cause of death in children under five. One of the essential roles of Red Cross volunteers is to support people affected by disasters.

Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina on Friday, bringing with it significant amounts of rain that could threaten lives. It’s anticipated that the rain will cause serious flooding in North Carolina, South Carolina and surrounding states. With evacuation orders issued to more than a million people, it is estimated that as many as 100,000 may need emergency shelter. The American Red Cross is launching a massive emergency response.  

Imagine a disaster strikes and thousands upon thousands of people might be injured or trapped. How do you begin to assess the damage? Map out the impacted area? Determine where you are most needed? By using new innovations like drones, humanitarian organizations can get where they are needed faster.

Twenty-four years after my very first mission with the Red Cross, I am grateful to be back in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The context this time is totally different from the one that had brought me to this country for my debut in the humanitarian world. Then it was a man-made catastrophe, the genocide in Rwanda. Now, it is nature’s work. Ebola, the deadly virus that killed thousands of people in West Africa, is back for the ninth time in the DRC.

A volcano is essentially a vent in the Earth’s surface. But, instead of blowing warm air and keeping your feet toasty (like a vent in your home), a volcano exhausts gases, volcanic ash and lava. Volcanoes exist because the Earth’s surface (the crust) is made of tectonic plates and it is estimated that there are 1500 active volcanoes today. 

Nearly one year ago, my colleague Martin De Vries described the first rains of 2017 to fall on the desperately drought-affected district of Kindo Koysha in southern Ethiopia. The occasion was joyous but all too short-lived. As Martin concluded then: “Has the drought ended? Not by a long way.” I arrived in Ethiopia three months later to find incredibly resilient people coping with varying degrees of recurrent drought in their regular ways; ways unfathomable to most of us in Canada.

By 9 a.m., fog has burned off and I am already looking for shade as we begin the hour-long walk through the makeshift settlement in Kutupalong. We are headed to the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society mobile clinic. After many trips, we know the trail reasonably well, only occasionally needing the local volunteers to guide us through new market areas or construction sites, which seem to appear everyday along the route. We are from different worlds - Bangladesh, Myanmar and Canada - yet we chat easily about the work day to come. What was chaotic and overwhelming a few weeks ago has become familiar – it is easy to forget that this great sprawling village is one of the largest camps of displaced people in the world.

The people of Eastern Ghouta have had to endure weeks, months and even years of fighting.
I had the opportunity to visit two of the camps that are now hosting thousands of people who are not only hungry and in many cases sick, but also tired. Tired of living in conflict. Tired of not being able to live a normal life.