Stories

Stories are ways for users like you to connect directly with the community. By encouraging our users to tell their Story we hope to provide a space where people can share their good practices, solutions, and lessons directly from the field. These practices aren’t always easily captured by traditional or quantitative methods, but can provide inspiration to other community members working in similar disaster preparedness areas. Read up on other people’s experiences by browsing through the content below, or contribute your own Story.

Your ideas can save lives and prepare communities.

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Featured Stories

Disasters Claim Fewer Lives, But Economic Costs Soar: Insights from 50 Years of WMO Data

28 Aug 2023

Extreme weather, climate and water-related events caused 11,778 reported disasters between 1970 and 2021, according to a new figure from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). These events resulted in a toll of over 2 million deaths and economic losses amounting to US$ 4.3 trillion. While economic losses have surged, there has been …

Disasters Claim Fewer Lives, But Economic Costs Soar: Insights from 50 Years of WMO Data Read More »

Never stop learning: ten years of the Flood Resilience Alliance in Mexico

Cale Johnstone 29 Sep 2023

At the heart of the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance’s work is the knowledge that there are always opportunities to adapt and improve. In the se...

Tags: Capacity Building for Disaster Risk Management, Community Engagement and Accountability, Flood, Resilience and Disaster Risk Management, Urban Risk Reduction

Collaborative Partnership – Services Providers and Service Users

Resilience Community 14 Jul 2023

This story was prepared and submitted by the Hong Kong Red Cross, Branch of Red Cross Society of China. Sub-divided units (SDUs), one of the “sp...

Tags: Community Engagement and Accountability

Widiawah (right) uses her cell phone to text friends and take photos. As of last month she can add something new to that list: buying essentials for her parents. Widiawah, 18, and her family don't have access to potable water at home, so they have to purchase jugs and bottles every week to stay hydrated. It's a big, but necessary, expense.

In an effort to help families like Widiawahs, the Red Cross and Mastercard launched a pilot project to transfer funds to people via mobile wallet technology. Widiawah's family and 700 other households in Bekasi, Indonesia received funds (about $60 USD), which they could spend or cash out at nearby convenience stores. After being trained on the process by local Red Cross volunteers and consulting with her parents, Widiawah used a mobile wallet accessible in her phone to purchase water, rice, and hygiene supplies like soap, toothpaste, and toothbrushes. Widiawah is pictured here with other neighbors who received cash transfers and with local Red Cross volunteer, Nasrul.

There are a lot of different ways to deliver aid to families facing hardship. Giving fundsrather than goodsallows people like Widiawah to prioritize needs and spend over time. Cash also has the ability to boost local economies, build up small businesses, and can be more discreet than boxes of supplies.

Widiawah sees another advantage, too, Sometimes families receive goods they might not use. Cash allows people to buy what they need.

Carrying out mobile transfersrather than giving people actual cash, bank slips, or vouchershad several advantages in Bekasi. Red Cross volunteers mentioned that it was safer and more efficient to distribute SIM cards to people in the community, rather than hand out a carload of cash. One of Widiawah's neighbors, Jaiyah, saw an extra layer of security, too. "If the money is on a SIM card, I'm the only one who can see it's there. And I'm the only one who knows it's there," she said.

Although Widiawah had never used a

A New Kind of Disaster Aid: Pay People Cash, Before Disaster Strikes

Vladislav Kovalevski 10 Jul 2023

This story was prepared by and originally published by the New York Times. Experiments suggest that sums as low as $50 can help the world’s poor...

Tags: Cash

Putting communities in the driver seat: Good practices from the Philippines

Jonathan Ulrich 12 Jun 2023

In the spirit of the localization agenda, the flood resilience project of the Philippine Red Cross accompanies, enables, and connects communities to b...

Tags: Capacity Building for Disaster Risk Management, Community Engagement and Accountability, Community Risk Assessment, Flood, Hurricane / Typhoon / Cyclone, Resilience and Disaster Risk Management, Risk Assessment

Myanmar Red Cross volunteers provide drinking water to children in communities affected by Cyclone Mocha

Cyclone Mocha: Accurate forecasts spur preparedness in Myanmar and Bangladesh

Global Disaster Preparedness Center 17 May 2023

Cyclone Mocha made landfall near Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh on on May 14th as an extremely severe cyclonic storm and moved inland, weaken...

Nature-based Solution for River basin and Coastal Risk Resilience Community

Thomas Aquino Banir Hikmat 16 May 2023

The Nature-based Solution for River basin and Coastal Risk Resilience Community program is applied harmoniously within the framework of Integrated Com...

Tags: Climate Change Adaptation, Resilience and Disaster Risk Management

Adapting to the impacts of extreme heat in Bangladesh’s labour force

Global Disaster Preparedness Center 08 May 2023

The health and productivity of the workforce in Bangladesh is under increasing threat in a warming world. In this commentary, Lucia Letsch, Shouro Das...

Tags: Climate Change Adaptation, Heat Wave

Bangladesh Red Crescent volunteers uses a megaphone to disseminate the warning signals for cyclone among the villagers. Sonagazi, Bangladesh.

How to create effective and inclusive early warnings: 11 recommendations from research

Vladislav Kovalevski 17 Apr 2023

Early warning systems (EWS) have been widely recognized as an essential tool to reduce risks and improve preparedness and response to natural hazards....

Tags: Disability Inclusive Disaster Preparedness, Early Warning Systems

New Teen Prep Kit Supports Young People to Get Started with Disaster Preparedness

Rita Ewing 07 Mar 2023

The Global Disaster Preparedness Center and the American Red Cross are pleased to announce the launch of Teen Prep Kit, a unique resource designed to ...

A deadly earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale has devastated large areas of southeast Afghanistan.

Nobody can predict earthquakes, but we can forecast them. Here’s how

Global Disaster Preparedness Center 15 Feb 2023

After devastating earthquakes, it’s common to see discussion of earthquake prediction. An earthquake prediction requires, in advance, the specif...

Tags: Earthquake, Hazard, Risk Assessment

Stories

Your ideas can save lives and prepare communities.

Featured Stories

Disasters Claim Fewer Lives, But Economic Costs Soar: Insights from 50 Years of WMO Data

Never stop learning: ten years of the Flood Resilience Alliance in Mexico

Collaborative Partnership – Services Providers and Service Users

A New Kind of Disaster Aid: Pay People Cash, Before Disaster Strikes

Putting communities in the driver seat: Good practices from the Philippines

Cyclone Mocha: Accurate forecasts spur preparedness in Myanmar and Bangladesh

Nature-based Solution for River basin and Coastal Risk Resilience Community

Adapting to the impacts of extreme heat in Bangladesh’s labour force

How to create effective and inclusive early warnings: 11 recommendations from research

New Teen Prep Kit Supports Young People to Get Started with Disaster Preparedness

Nobody can predict earthquakes, but we can forecast them. Here’s how

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