Abstract
and where the American Red Cross comes in in prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.
Introduction
Crises and disasters are serious disruptions of the proper and efficient functioning of the community through pervasive and wide spread losses that exceeds the capacity of nations and concerned authorities to address and cope up with them using the available resources sufficiently. A crisis or a disaster might arise as a sudden emergency or on some occasions, it could be slow on the onset. During disasters emanating from man-made and natural hazards or even crises that are triggered by violent conflicts, the immediate imperative of the response and disaster management organizations is to save lives, reduce loss and damage of property, reduce suffering of the victims of the disaster during and after its occurrence, comfort and support the affected communities among other critical areas of focus that are witnessed after the occurrence of a disaster. These actions together with preparedness and resilience building and combined with preventive risk reduction constitute the core components of the disaster management and response efforts.
In other words, the world continues to face significant challenges of the growing vulnerabilities and threats that are connected to climate changes and unfavorable economic conditions. It is hence necessary for the countries and the entire disaster management fraternity to be prepared to counter issues of environmental degradation, food insecurity and extreme weather events that are manmade and naturally occurring.
Literature review
The scarcity of resources also, including the shortage of natural resources such as water has also contributed to a larger extent to the growing tension between communities and could further fuel new sets of crises or even fuel the pre-existing forms of conflicts.
The American Red Cross is a grassroots network having more than 13 million active volunteers in different parts of the world and who work within the communities in the critical areas of risk reduction, health and development, disaster response and recovery and disaster preparedness.
The American Red Cross has shown a firm commitment to continue to protect and save lives, protect livelihood and as well strengthen the recovery efforts from the crises and disasters in the future as outlined in its strategy 2020.
This is one of the primary strategies that it has been using to withstand the future shocks of disasters.
Away from the United States’ and world’s media, the American Red Cross has been addressing thousands of disasters and crises that are witnessed on a daily basis at the local levels.
These principles include universality, unity, voluntary service, independence, neutrality, impartiality and humanity (Clarke, 2016).
The privileged relationship of the national and international societies of the organization and the respective governments where the organization has established its affiliate branches has helped to create and provide a unique access to those who need the services of the organization within and across borders.
For instance, the Red Cross and Red Crescent network have established a global reach with its member National Societies in every country of the world.
Identify (Role of Humanitarian Aid Worker)
The staff and National Society Volunteers play a major role in supporting their communities in the bid to identify the vulnerabilities and hazards combined with the local capacities and the available coping mechanisms.
Based on the analysis made by the humanitarian aid workers, the organization in collaboration with the local communities develop initiatives that are aimed at addressing risks, response plans, ensure local preparedness and improve the early warning systems where possible for broader establishment of the smart risk reduction strategies through local governance processes.
