Local communities central to disaster preparedness, says David Andrews

In an address to the committee, Mr Andrews outlined the work done by the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement both nationally and internationally to end suffering in the wake of the tsunami.

And he told the committee that the money raised by the Irish Red Cross - Euro 13.5 million - would be used to help Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers in local communities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and elsewhere carry out their work.

Mr Andrews emphasised that it was these local voluntary members in the towns and rural areas most affected by the tsunami, which had been to the forefront of the response in the first hours and days and that our role - in concert with our international partners, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is to get behind this work.

Please see the full text of Mr Andrews' address below.

Presentation to the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman, Dr Michael Woods TD
Tuesday 18 January 2005

By

David Andrews
Chairman
Irish Red Cross/Crois Dhearg na hÉireann

Thank you Chairman for your very kind invitation to attend this meeting. I would like to commend you and your fellow-members for your initiative in giving us all this opportunity to come here today and share our ideas with you, your committee members and with our colleagues from these other Irish agencies.

Indeed today's invitation is very timely in view of the global conference on disasters, which opened earlier today in the city of Kobe, Japan on the tenth anniversary of that citys own earthquake which claimed six thousand, four hundred (6,400) lives.

Little did we know when this conference was planned that this figure - representing as it does intense personal tragedy and loss - would be dwarfed by the gargantuan scale of what has happened in the last three weeks which has seen up to a hundred and sixty thousand (160,000) people die, over two and a half million people forced to leave their homes, and twenty-seven thousand still listed as missing across twelve countries.

"The best way to honour the dead, is to protect the living,"is what today's conference was told by Jan Egeland, the UN's Under-Secretary of Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordination.

I propose in this presentation to briefly outline to you what action our organisation - the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement worldwide - took on the day of the disaster itself, and in the three weeks since. But, I think we must take on board this direction from the UN, and look to the future as we also know that the Kobe conference learned that an early warning system for the Indian Ocean region would cost approximately forty million Euro (Euro 40 million).

Yet the expenditure of forty million Euro (Euro 40 million) must be tied into a bottom-up approach to community involvement, ensuring that this hi-tech solution is not a stand alone defence, but rather an asset that is plugged into a wider network involving the education of schoolchildren, training in First Aid and leadership, and the construction of buildings - particularly civic buildings such as hospitals and schools - that are robust enough to withstand most natural disasters.

Failure to involve communities will, I believe, simply build a modern-day Maginot Line that will fall very short of the wholesale bulwark against death and destruction that is urgently needed. And make no mistake, what we have seen in these last few weeks will happen again. The UN, and indeed our own research in our annual Red Cross and Red Crescent World Disasters Report has consistently tracked a rising trend in natural disasters.

Two and a half billion people (2.5 billion) have been affected by natural disasters in the past ten years alone; that's an increase of sixty per cent (60%) on previous years. Floods and earthquakes account for more than half the total casualties, and Asia is by far the most affected continent, accounting for ninety per cent (90%) of all the casualties and homeless.

Yet high finances are not at stake here: Many of you may not be aware, for instance, that it takes just a thousand US Dollars (US$1,000) - that's approximately seven hundred and fifty Euro (Euro 750) at today's exchange rate - to build a seismically safe house.

Or that with just ten Euro (Euro 10) we can buy 6,600 water purification tablets; quite a lifesaver when you realise that, leaving this disaster aside, ordinarily over two million (2.2 million) people die worldwide every year from dirty water.

From day one of this disaster - St Stephen's Day - the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement both locally in the countries affected, and internationally throughout our entire global movement of 181 member- national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, swung into action.

To understand how we were able to do this, I will - if I may - briefly outline to you the way we work.

Our Movement comprises three elements:

Firstly the national societies, of which we have eleven in the twelve countries affected. These people are skilled and practised at disaster-management work in their own areas, in providing medical treatment to the injured, transport to hospital, distributing aid and re-uniting separated families.

Secondly, the umbrella-body that co-ordinates and represents the national societies to third parties such as the UN, and governments. This is the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies or IFRC.

And thirdly, the organisation that is familiar to many of you through its work - in accordance with its specific mandate as laid down by the Geneva Conventions - the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

From the very first hours of this disaster, our national societies in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and all the other countries affected, with the exception of the Maldives which does not have its own national Red Cross or Red Crescent society, dealt with the immediate effects of death, injury, and the separation of loved ones.

They were supported in this by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies which quickly mobilised the readiness of other national societies, such as ourselves in the Irish Red Cross to back-up their work. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies also deployed an Emergency Response Unit (ERU) to the Maldives to investigate how we, as a global movement, could help the people there.

Indeed this ERU is one of 14 such specialist Red Cross/Red Crescent international teams that have been deployed in the countries affected by this disaster.

And the specialization in conflict, of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which already had programmes in at least three of the countries affected (Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Myanmar - or Burma), ensured that there was already a well-informed and expert group of international specialists based in these countries prior to this disaster.

This structure and modus operandi is central to the range of works we are undertaking at present in the affected countries, as it is based on a commitment that is: long-term AND rooted in local communities

To date we, in the Irish Red Cross have raised thirteen and a half million Euro(13.5 million), we intend to channel this money to the areas most affected by this catastrophe and we believe, that with our unique combination of both local and global expertise, we have the means to ensure that it is spent where it is most needed.

This money will go a long way towards reaching the global target of one hundred and nineteen million Euro (Euro 119 million) sought by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for the next six months.

However, with the recovery of bodies still continuing on this very day, there is no doubt, but that more money will be required for much longer than merely six months from now.

We will be guided in this by what our colleagues in the local Red Cross and Red Crescent communities that were most affected by this disaster tell us, through our international organisations, what they need. With close to a million voluntary members of the Indonesian Red Cross and five thousand voluntary members of the Sri Lankan Red Cross, to give you just two examples, we are confident that their local knowledge will be central to our planned expenditure.

Indeed, as my friend, the Secretary General of the Irish Red Cross, Carmel Dunne, reported after her visit there with our Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern and our colleagues here, the work that she saw being done by ordinary people in their own communities is quite extraordinary by any standards, but particularly in view of what they have been put through.

I conclude Chairman, by thanking you once again for your invitation and by placing on the record of this house my deep appreciation to the Irish people for their very great generosity and my commitment to them and to you that the monies raised will be used to wisely and well.

Ends.