Logistics and mass sanitation
The British Red Cross specialises in the logistics and mass sanitation ERUs. Other national societies provide teams trained in water and sanitation, hospitals, basic health and IT. Having arrived in the field, the ERU teams then slot into the wider Red Cross/Red Crescent operation. In Niger in 2005, for example, the British Red Cross logistics ERU set up the infrastructure (communications, warehousing etc.) for the Federation to supply family food rations to tens of thousands of people.
The Red Cross knows that reducing the spread of disease after a disaster is key to saving lives, so in early 2007 the British Red Cross began training staff in mass sanitation and hygiene promotion. The Mass sanitation ERU was deployed to Pakistan after floods swept through Sindh and Baluchistan provinces in the summer of 2007. The teams spent two months working with volunteers and staff from the Pakistan Red Crescent, where they provided emergency sanitation facilities for displaced people, promoted hygiene and distributed soap to families.
Having a wealth of logistics experts in the UK means the British Red Cross is also able to respond quickly to emergencies at home. When hundreds of thousands of people in Gloucestershire lost their water supply following floods in July 2007, teams of logisticians worked round the clock for weeks to ensure vulnerable people had ample drinking water.
Psychosocial support
The British Red Cross also has an agreement with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to provide psychosocial support to British citizens affected by disasters overseas. The FCO, which is responsible for providing consular assistance to Britons overseas, can request that the British Red Cross send delegates abroad to offer practical and emotional support to survivors and bereaved relatives.
Psychosocial support teams have supported Britons abroad on several occasions, such as after the Asian tsunami in 2004, triple bombings in Dahab, Egypt in 2006, and a fatal plane crash in Phuket, Thailand in September 2007.
Click here for Federation information on ERUs
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