AIRSICK: An Industrial Devolution

The issue of climate change will not disappear just because a few skeptics have (misleadingly) dented the numbers. Our addiction to fossil fuels has led us to the brink (just witness the horrific eco-tragedy playing out in the Gulf of Mexico). 


Embedded here is a magnificent multimedia piece produced by Mediastorm and Lucas Oleniuk of the Toronto Star. This is a local story with a global message. Of the 20'000 images used in the production all but two were taken in the Ontario region. "My hope is that one day this film will be seen as the way we used to do things" says Oleniuk. "Don't let climate change fall from the political agenda" says HDEO! 

Airsick: an Industrial Devolution (the message):


We are upsetting the atmosphere upon which all life depends. 
The heat is on. 
It's the way we live. 
Coal is the single biggest threat to civilization and to all life on our planet. 
But it's not just coal. 
Nearly a quarter of the world's CO2 emissions now come from transportation. 
Aviation is one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions. 
The world's energy demands will rise over 40% by 2030. 
Do nothing? 
The metabolism of our planet is now on a collision course with the metabolism of our planet. 
Time is running out. 
The Time to Act is Now.

or, in Obama's words: "The issue of climate change is one that we ignore at our peril. There may still be disputes about exactly how much we're contributing to the warming of the earth's atmosphere and how much is naturally occurring, but what we can be scientifically certain of is that our continued use of fossil fuels is pushing us to a point of no return. And unless we free ourselves from a dependence on these fossil fuels and chart a new course on energy in this country, we are condemning future generations to global catastrophe."


Last December, we (the International Red Cross) released a co-production with Mediastorm and the Thomson Reuters Foundation to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, one of the worst natural disasters to unleash itself on our planet. The award-winning piece was called "Surviving the Tsunami: Stories of Hope".


/PC

Haiti: When it rains it pours

It’s been an extraordinary few weeks in the world's latest disaster zones. A little more than a month after the devastion that befell Haiti the Americas suffered another major earthquake – one of the strongest ever recorded – in Chile that unleashed tsunamis and so far has claimed more than 720 lives. 

Then, in Western Europe, Storm Xyntia claimed some 60 lives in with waves as high as eight meters battering the coasts of Portugal, Spain and France. The west coast of France was hit by winds up to 150 km/h killing at least 48 people. Charente-maritime and Vendée experienced very serious flooding and damage and at least 25 people died in Vendée after a sea wall collapsed in causing massive flooding. Search and rescue operations were still under way at the time of writing with casualties numbers expected to rise. 

Meanwhile back in Haiti, early rains trigger deadly floods, further testing the endurance of a nation reeling from one of the worst disasters of modern times. Occasional contributor to HDEO, Alex Wynter, is on the ground and posted this report today.

Deadly floods saturate Haiti’s south west

It came a month before the official start of the season, but the intense rain that swept through the western end of the southern Haitian promontory over the weekend left parts of the city of Les Cayes under a metre and a half of water and reportedly claimed eight lives. 

Photo: Jean Renand Valiere/UNDP: Intense rain swept through the western end of the southern Haitian promontory over the weekend, leaving parts of the city of Les Cayes (pictured) under a metre and a half of water and reportedly claimed eight lives.

“Yesterday it rained all day long and only stopped early this morning,” said Jean-Yves Placide, regional head of the Haitian Red Cross branch in Les Cayes, 160 km west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. 

“The poor state of the sewers caused flooding in every quarter of the city,” he added “and in some places the waters rose to ceiling level in people’s houses.”

Damage

Red Cross branch staff are now working with local authorities to assess the full extent of the damage. Local news reports said people had to climb on to roofs to escape the water cascading through the streets of the town, which is one of Haiti’s most important ports for the coffee and sugar trade. Some houses are said to have collapsed, and patients at Les Cayes hospital had to be moved to safety on upper floors.

Placide says the branch was trying to confirm reports two people had died in Cavaillon, 19 km from Les Cayes. Cavaillon and Les Cayes were also affected by the 12 January quake, if less seriously than Port-au-Prince and other towns to the east.

Refugees

But like many towns and cities across Haiti, the 70’000 population of Les Cayes has been swollen by refugees from the quake zone, who are staying with friends and relatives or camping in people’s yards and on open spaces.

“There are many people living in the streets who could not sleep last night,” Placide says. “The situation will be really worrying if it continues to rain. The sun is out now, but the storm clouds come and go.”

The flooding in Les Cayes has given renewed urgency to the effort to protect hundreds of thousands of acutely vulnerable people in the more than 300 improvised settlements that sprang up after the earthquake.

The latest figures show that nearly 40 per cent of an estimated total of 1.3m people have now received various shelter materials such as tarpaulins, tents and toolkits.

Hurricane season

But with less than a month to go before the 1^st of April start to the rainy season, humanitarian shelter in Haiti is a battle against time.

Neither tents nor tarpaulins are expected to provide much more than minimal protection from the Haitian rainy season, which peaks in May when Port-au-Prince gets an average 230 mm of rain, and sometimes as much as 50 mm in two hours.

“In addition to our earthquake response, we’re taking action to scale up preparations for the hurricane season, which starts around the middle of the year,” says Iain Logan, head of Red Cross operations in Port-au-Prince.

Disaster preparedness

“The early floods in Les Cayes are a sharp reminder that the very significant disaster preparedness effort we started after the 2008 hurricanes will have to be expanded and adapted. We face an almost unique set of circumstances generated by a catastrophic quake, a rainy season, and a hurricane season, one after the other in rapid succession.”

Les Cayes was Sunday cut off by road and – due to lingering bad weather – by air. But a Red Cross team was hoping to get through by air today.

/PC Originally posted on www.ifrc.org

Surviving the Tsunami - Stories of Hope

This time five years ago the Tsunami claimed nearly a quarter of a million lives and left in its wake the greatest reconstruction and recovery challenge since the second world war. Hundreds of millions of ordinary people around the world responded spontaneously in an act of solidarity. For organizations like ours, the Red Cross, this meant an incredible 3 billion dollars in donations of which almost 80% came from the general public. But from this tragedy came stories of hope. Stories of survival that inspire and illuminate. Together with Thomson Reuters Foundation, and the creative guys and girls at Mediastorm, we put together (in less than three months from start to finish) a multimedia piece that we hope pays tribute to these stories of resilience and survival and may contribute to the Tsunami testimony. The multimedia includes a resources section, an animated data map, a comments feature and the centre piece - multimedia documentary portraying four people whose lives were touched by the Tsunami. Embedded here is the trailer - I hope it moves you to explore the full project which can be found at: http://tsunami.trust.org/




This was an amazing project to work in. Massive archival research; dispatching tv crews to four different locations within a two week window, identifying people whose stories might resonate and represent (and who were willing to tell these stories), meticulous multimedia production and, not least, sharing a professional and principled approach with the folks at Reuters and Mediastorm so that we could enable people tell their stories in a dignified manner that will stand the tests of time. We hope you enjoy it and let us know what you think.
/PC

Learning from the tsunami – five years on

My friend and colleague Patrick Fuller, put together this short reflection which describes well the enormous challenge the Red Cross and others faced trying to cope with responding to the multiple disasters the tsunami left in its wake all across Asia Pacific and as far away as East Africa. The piece was originally written for our website but I think its worth reposting here. In the humanitarian world (and beyond I have no doubt) the Tsunami was a catalyst for a new modus operandi - it certainly was not business as usual and it never will be again. Patrick is our communications coordinator for the Tsunami operation with whom I also worked closely to produce a multi-media documentary that tells the story of four incredible people whose lives were changed forever by the Tsunami. Called Stories of Hope it is a testimony not only to human suffering but to human resilience - the incredible instinct to survive and move on.

When the tsunami struck on Dec 26^th 2004, millions of people watched in horror as the full extent of the worst natural disaster in living memory unfolded on their television screens. More than 226,000 people lost their lives across 14 countries and 470,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Now, five years on, the story is a very different one. Communities have recovered and in some cases been entirely rebuilt.

The Red Cross Red Crescent launched a major recovery operation with programmes in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. In the space of five years close to 5 million people have been reached with humanitarian assistance and more than 51,000 permanent houses have been built.

“How are we going to cope?”

Al Panico, head of the IFRC’s tsunami unit first joined as head of operation in Sri Lanka in 2005. ‘My first thoughts on seeing the scale of the devastation were, how are we going to cope with this? We always said this was going to be a marathon and not a sprint and that it would take five years to rebuild’.

In Sri Lanka two thirds of the coastline had been hit and the situation was chaotic at best. The immediate priority was to get tents, food and water to the thousands of people camped by the roadside who had lost everything. ‘Our volunteers played a vital role in helping to avert the risk of a second tragedy’, says Tissa Abeywickrama, Chairman of the Movement Task Force with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society. ‘We provided thousands of cooked meals to people all the way along the coast. Quick medical care and supplies of clean water meant that there were no outbreaks of disease’.

The story in Indonesia was similar but on a bigger scale. The waves had come in higher, 20 metres in some stretches, driving inland for miles and destroying entire settlements along parts of the coast.

‘Some of those who came to help had lost homes and family members themselves’, says Bob McKerrow, IFRC head of delegation in Jakarta. ‘Over a three-month period 200 young Indonesian Red Cross volunteers retrieved some 45,000 bodies in Aceh and took them for a proper burial. This was harrowing work’.

Operation Recovery

Recovering from such a massive disaster presented huge logistical challenges. Hundreds of skilled staff from all corners of the world were recruited together with thousands of local staff. The tsunami had affected an 800 kilometre strip around the coast of Aceh. Reaching communities meant mobilising boats, planes, helicopters and a fleet of M6 trucks specially imported from Norway that could travel cross-country. Wood was sourced from Finland and steel from Thailand to build over 20,000 high quality shelters in Aceh. In the Maldives everything had to be taken by ship including 15,000 rainwater-harvesting kits that were installed on 79 islands. Then there were the political challenges. The resurgence of conflict in northern Sri Lanka meant that access to areas was difficult and projects had to be put on hold. Land titles in Indonesia meant that in many areas it took years to be able to start building permanent homes.

‘We had to take some risks but this was because the needs were so huge’, explains Panico. ‘This was the biggest reconstruction programme that the Red Cross Red Crescent had ever embarked upon. We were getting into partnerships with government agencies and organisations that we had never worked with before, in areas where we didn’t have all the answers’.

Catalyst for managing disasters

In the early days of the disaster, coordination between humanitarian organisations, government agencies and people affcectey be the disaster themselves proved difficult.  But lessons have since been learnt. The tsunami was a catalyst for improving the way that disasters are now collectively managed. In recent years the UN cluster system came into being, in which the IFRC plays a prominent role. Now there are dedicated teams coordinating the response to disasters in specific sectors such as shelter, water and sanitation and health.

 In Aceh, an early challenge emerged when most agencies miscalculated the time it would take to get families into permanent housing.  Thousands of people were still living in tents by the end of 2005 which lead to the IFRC stepping in and taking the lead in building 20,000 transitional shelters, many of which are still in use today as shops or annexes to permanent homes.

Rebuilding entirely new communities

The biggest single achievement for the Red Cross Red Crescent has been the permanent housing programme. Various different approaches were used to reconstruct more than 51,000 homes. Contractors were used to build entire communities on resettlement sites provided by governments. In the Maldives the IFRC coordinated the construction of an entire community on Dhuvaafaru an uninhabited island in the Raa Atoll. Six hundred homes, together with infrastructure such as schools, mosques, water and power plants, were built for over 3,000 Maldivians whose former island home was ruined by the tsunami.

Considerable funds were also channelled into ‘owner driven’ housing schemes.  In Sri Lanka more than 17,000 families were provided with cash grants and technical guidance to build or repair their own homes under a unique partnership between the IFRC, UN-Habitat and the World Bank.

Economic life and independence

The focus on ‘building back better’ has meant looking beyond simply helping someone to build a house. Over 650,000 people now have clean water to drink and better sanitation thanks to water supply plants, distribution pipelines and new wells constructed by the Red Cross Red Crescent.  Thousands of people have been helped to get back on their feet through livelihoods support programmes. Over 30,000 households have been reached by asset replacement or enhancement projects. Fishing boats, engines and nets have been replaced and people have been given opportunities to retrain in new vocations.

 Over 62,000 households have received livelihoods support grants which have enabled them to start up small businesses such as groceries or market gardens. Many people opted to start livestock and poulty rearing businesses. The expertise built up in the field of livelihoods is now an important part of the Red Cross Red Crescent approach to recovery programming. Helping individuals to cope with the trauma and stress of the tsunami has been another area where the Red Cross Red Crescent has developed considerable experience. Psychosocial support programmes have helped both children and adults to cope with the stress and trauma of the tsunami. Now, over 270,000 people are certified in community based first aid and pyschosocial support.

Allowing families and communities to take action on their own behalf, without becoming dependent on external support, has been one of the most important lessons drawn from the tsunami.

Saving lives before the next disaster strikes

‘Even though reconstruction projects are drawing to a close, disaster prone communities still need to be made safer and better prepared,’ says Al Panico, ‘a huge amount has been done to improve the technology around early warning systems, but this approach has to go hand in hand with risk reduction programmes at the community level’. Making sure that people have the right information, skills and knowledge to take early action and prepare for disasters is a long term priority for Red Cross national societies in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

These countries now feature community based disaster risk reduction projects focused on training volunteers, developing  village disaster risk reduction plans, and improving community capacity in mitigating the risks from disasters. Since the tsunami Over 38,000 people have been trained in vulnerability and capacity assessments or community based disaster management.

“The tsunami operation has given us the highest recognition we ever had from both the public and government,” says Indonesian Red Cross Society Secretary General, Iyang D. Sukandar.  Since the tsunami and subsequent disaster operations in Indonesia, the Government of Indonesia has recognised the Red Cross as a key member of a newly formed National Disaster Quick Response Team.  “We now have skilled volunteers and staff who always ready to help people in any disaster situation throughout Indonesia,” Iyang Sukandar says. 

/PC

What has the Tsunami really taught us?

Five years ago, on 26 December 2004, a massive earthquake off the coast of Sumatra created a tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean. Millions of people around the world watched in horror as the aftermath of the biggest single natural disaster in living memory unfolded on their television screens. Almost 230,000 people lost their lives across 14 countries.

In Indonesia’s Aceh province, entire communities were wiped off the map. Constructing sturdier new homes and settlements with electricity, clean water and good sanitation is one step towards what is known as “building back better”, but genuine recovery requires a more inclusive approach that addresses people’s wider needs as they see them.

In its wake came extraordinary generosity. Over the past five years the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has channelled public donations into recovery programmes that have supported almost 5 million people across the four worst affected countries - Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Maldives. The immense  task of reconstructing homes, schools and hospitals is almost complete, allowing us to see more clearly what we have learned from the tsunami and how it has fundamentally changed the way we respond to large-scale disasters.

Building back better means helping to create safer and more resilient communities. Reducing risks as effectively as possible requires the full participation of communities exposed to potential disasters.

Since the tsunami, the Red Cross Red Crescent has helped to create community-based risk reduction programmes that are now active in more than 265 communities across Aceh. These risk reduction teams map the hazards faced in their communities and carry out small-scale prevention and mitigation activities such as improving drainage systems to prevent flooding during the monsoon. They also learn emergency first aid skills and involve all generations in their community in evacuation drills. Empowering communities to take preventive action on their own behalf, without being dependent on external support, is one of the clear, unalterable lessons learned from the tsunami experience.

On average, the Asia Pacific region experiences 41 per cent of recorded global disaster events. Two to three large scale disasters now take place every two years. This situation is compounded by an increasing number of localized smaller scale disasters that have increased the total number of disasters per month from an average of 21 in 2004 to 51 in 2008.

Since the tsunami, the Red Cross Red Crescent has responded to no fewer than five major earthquakes that have struck in ‘the Ring of Fire’, a highly active seismic zone running through the Indonesian archipelago.

When the latest quake struck the city of Padang in West Sumatra on October 1, a trained network of radio operators swung into action keeping vital lines of communication open between the Indonesian Red Cross headquarters in Jakarta and its field offices in the quake zone. Pre-positioned emergency relief items in the area meant that help was immediately at hand for survivors and 200 ‘Satgana’ (disaster response) volunteers fanned out into affected areas to assess the urgent needs. Psychosocial support volunteers who had been trained in Aceh also arrived in Padang to help adults and children cope with the trauma. Much of this effective disaster response capacity comes directly from our learning following the tsunami.

Perhaps the most important lesson that the tsunami has taught us is that systematic risk reduction efforts depends on building strong working partnerships between all stakeholders – communities, local and national government, governmental and non-governmental organizations and the private sector. The legacy of the tsunami is that the IFRC has moved significantly closer to this goal.

The key lesson still needs to be acted upon. Governments, donors, the media and the general public must increase their support and promote preventive action such as early warning systems.

But early warning systems alone are not enough.  While these help people to be aware of a disaster, true risk reduction can only be achieved by working and building the knowledge and skills of the people who live in ‘at risk’ communities. This is where the strength of the Red Cross Red Crescent lies. Our volunteers come from these communities and are there before, during and after disasters. 

The incredible public  generosity that the tsunami uncovered must be harnessed to invest in helping communities at risk adapt to known weather and seismic related threats but also to new disasters emerging from changing climate patterns. At the same time international donors must honour their commitments to increase funding towards risk reduction initiatives.

Responding effectively to disasters will always be essential but nothing is more effective than getting people out of harm’s way in the first place. Indeed is this not our moral obligation to those whose lives were taken by the tsunami five years ago? Let that be the great lesson of the tsunami – act early and save lives.


/PC

Tsunamis, Earthquakes, Typhoons: What's happening in Asia Pacific?

What's happening in Asia Pacific? The region is tragically living up to its reputation as one of the most disaster-prone regions of the world with four near-simultaneous disasters – devastation from Typhoon Ketsana and torrential rains in the Philippines and Viet Nam in South East Asia, and a strong earthquake followed by a tsunami on the Samoan islands, in the Pacific. 

In addition, at the time of writing, a 7.9 earthquake was recorded on Wednesday 30 September, off the West coast of Indonesia, about 50 kilometres from Padang, the capital of West Sumatra.  Buildings were damaged but there are no reports of deaths or injuries, so far. A tsunami watch was immediately issued for Indonesia, India, Thailand and Malaysia. 

We have had people on the ground working closely with the national Red Cross societies in the region. Our communicators were dispatched to or already positioned in the disaster zones and we are feeding the media machine as best we can. There is a special page on our website dedicated to the whole region which also includes useful Google maps. There is a twitter stream too and on the news side of our website we have issued reports and press releases (already 3 different articles today).

Our colleagues in the region are now flat out for about one week now. The time differences make it almost impossible to rest as the US media (for instance) wake up when Asia Pacific goes to bed but during these days nobody sleeps much. And Europe of course is sandwiched in the middle.

These disasters have taken the lives of hundreds of people across the region, sowed devastation, chaos and economic hardship, and are severely testing the mettle and disaster preparedness of both governments and humanitarian actors. For their part, Red Cross Societies in the region immediately mobilized thousands of volunteers and staff skilled in disaster management. Thanks to early warning systems, many communities at risk were evacuated ahead of the Typhoon and the tsunami; shelters were set up, pre-positioned relief stocks distributed as well as water and food. 

While the loss of life could have been much greater this should not belittle the devastation caused and the massive economic and social losses which will have to be regained.

Volunteers among the first to respond 

The fact that Red Cross avolunteers are based in the communities affected, close to the people, makes it possible to mobilize emergency help immediately, and to respond to four large emergencies at the same time. 

Some 135 Samoa Red Cross volunteers are currently distributing clean water, first aid supplies, tarpaulins and other relief to affected families. These specially-trained volunteers initially provided early warnings to people in coastal settlements to stay clear of beaches, they supported evacuation efforts in and around Apia, and are managing three camps for the displaced. They are also participating in needs assessments. According to officials, at least 79 people have died and it is estimated that 60 villages and 15,000 people have been affected by this disaster. Tremors continue to shake the country, and tsunami alarms are still sounding.

In Tonga, reports indicate that the Niuas Islands and several villages were flooded, preliminary figures put the death toll at seven, with three people missing. The Tonga Red Cross has mobilized its volunteers to provide emergency assistance and conduct further assessments.

In Viet Nam, the death toll stands at 38 to date, with 10 people reported missing and at least 81 injured. An estimated three million people have been affected. Flooding has been the worst in 45 years in some provinces (Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Kon Tum) and extensive damage is reported to rice paddies, sugar cane, vegetables and aquaculture. Access to flooded communes and mountainous districts is very difficult. Red Cross staff and volunteers continue to manage shelters and provide emergency relief to affected families.

In the Philippines, still reeling from the devastation brought by Typhoon Ketsana, the current death toll stands at 246 people, according to official figures, with 38 missing and five injured. Some two million people are estimated to have been affected, with nearly 570,000 displaced.

Thousands of Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) volunteers have been working round the clock since 26 September in search and rescue operations, delivering food and other relief items to survivors, psychosocial support to traumatized families and first aid to the sick and injured.


/PC

Bouncing back from the Tsunami: 5 years on

Eric Porterfield, a communication officer with the American Red Cross, visited Sri Lanka recently to see the progress made by communities who were hardest hit by the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004. He and his team have put together a great video and stills clip showing how the lives of ordinary Sri Lankans have benefited from Red Cross support, five years down the line after one of the world's worst natural disasters. I really like the simplicity and lightness of this report with a full focus on the communities and individuals themselves. It's a good example of the creative ways that non-profits can report back to donors - in this case the general public - on how thier generosity and funding is making a real difference and bringing about positive change where it's most needed. Chapeau AmCross!

I first stumbled across this clip on www.bailaman.blogspot.com

/PC

War and Flood: Living with a Double Disaster

The Sri Lankan village of Sallitheevu in Vaharai, Northern Batticaloa, has been affected by a double tragedy in the past few years - devastated not only by the armed conflict but also by the tsunami that destroyed the east coast of the country on Boxing Day 2004.

Sivaskaran Shirani, 27, is one of the many affected by both disasters. She has four children - two boys aged 11 and five, and two girls aged ten and eight.

”Our house was completely destroyed in the tsunami, but we all escaped,” she says. “We received a new house under the tsunami reconstruction programme. Before the conflict came to our village, we had a good life. My husband was a fisherman and even had his own motorized boat. We made a good living.

Fighters in black masks

”Then during the battle for this area, fighters came to our house and ordered us to open the door. “They searched the house and found him. They dragged him into the house and executed him in front of me and the children. We were married for 12 years.”

Shirani wipes a tear as she continues her story. “After my husband was killed, we escaped the fighting in our boat and went to Valachchennai. I sold the boat there and we lived as internally displaced people (IDPs) for a while. When the fighting ended and we were allowed to return, I came back here, although we had nothing left.”

Restoring livelihoods

The Red Cross began to work in Sallitheevu to help widows and other vulnerable members of the community to restore their livelihoods after the tsunami and the conflict. Shirani received fishing nets and seeds for home gardening as well as a household grant that she used to buy a fiberglass paddle canoe, which is currently being used by a relative who gives her a percentage of his catch, bringing in a small income. She has also taken up British Red Cross sewing training.

Shirani explains the importance of this. “Fishing is seasonal and sometimes there is no catch at all. That is why I took up sewing. I hope it will help supplement our income. Before this project I didn’t know how to sew at all but I was interested in learning as I have four children to support.

“Now, after two months of training, I have the basic skills necessary to make most garments. This project will go on for couple of months more, so I expect to be able to make any garment well by then. I hope we will be able to make clothes we can sell on the market by the end of this project.”

Make a difference

Shirani is also a member of the local village committee. ”I joined the committee because I wanted to make a difference in the village as this is where my children will grow up,” she says.

Shirani is desperate to do whatever she can to help her children. “I want to go abroad and earn some money for my children. I want to go to Saudi Arabia and work as a housemaid. I hear the money there is good. I can’t watch my children suffer like this any more, so I have pawned all my jewellery and borrowed some money for the trip.

“I would have gone already, but I lost my birth certificate in the tsunami and am still waiting for them to issue a replacement. I plan to go as soon as I get it. I know the risks, but this is my last chance. If something happens to me, my children will be orphans and I can’t bear to think of that, but I can’t bear to listen to them cry with hunger either.

Educate our children

‘We have a lot of financial difficulties, but all four of my children are still in school. It was my husband’s dream to educate our children, and I will do anything I can to make sure that happens. But although the education is free, there are many expenses such as books, pencils, shoes and bags.”

As if on cue, her eight-year-old daughter walks into the house just back from school. The bottom of her school bag is in tatters, forcing her to wear the bag upside down so that the books will not fall out.

Shirani looks at her daughter’s bag and sighs. ”Some days I am not able to provide a meal or even some tea. We live very difficult lives. I am hopeful that things will continue to improve as they have since the Red Cross arrived in Sallitheevu.”

This story originally appeared on ifrc.org and was penned by Amanda George from the British Red Cross.