The World Food Programme’s Panama Regional Bureau oversees operations in 11 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. One of Benjamin’s tasks was to ensure the protection of populations affected by emergencies in these countries. Through my work I aimed at ensuring that the resources provided by WFP were fairly-distributed, efficiently utilized, and would not stir up or fuel existing conflict in local communities,” Benjamin explains.

Deep in the heart of the district of Kindo Koysha in southern Ethiopia, the road system is rudimentary. When volunteers from the Ethiopian Red Cross Society wanted to start distributing emergency water rations to the most vulnerable of families, getting there was a noted challenge. But, with people like Yonas Bade, a farmer and local volunteer on hand, it was a challenge that would be quickly overcome.

Richard has been working with UNICEF Ethiopia’s Somali Field Office as a Nutrition Specialist since December 2016 where he has been engaged in the implementation and coordination of the nutrition emergency response. He joined UNICEF at the peak of the food and nutrition crisis and has provided technical support at all stages of the emergency response led by the Somali Regional Health Bureau, in collaboration with UN Agencies, non-governmental organizations as well as woreda (district) health staff.

At the scenes of the mudslides and flash floods that killed over 500 people and displaced approximately 6000 others, volunteers played amazingly important roles in very many ways. According to Pieter Peters*, a resident of the downstream Kamayama community, rescuing people that were being washed away as well as recovering the dead from the gushing streams was frightening, but, he says, it had to be done. “We pulled both living and dead people from the flood waters in large numbers.”

The most severe mudslides – triggered by three days of heavy rains – occurred in the coastal suburb of Racecourse on the city’s eastern edge, as well as in Regent and Lumley where thousands of makeshift settlements are home to the city’s poorest communities. Response teams, including dozens of Sierra Leone Red Cross (SLRCS) volunteers recovered people from the mud and debris, helping evacuate residents, transferring bodies to morgues and providing medical care to the injured.

For the past ten years the volunteers have remained true to their calling as rescuers, offering emergency medical aid to those in need. Dr. Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan, the founder of the 24-hour free ambulance service in Mogadishu, says he was motivated to start the voluntary service by the deplorable state of health services in the city.

Volunteer Sonali Rani Das works as a nurse and has been a member of the mobile medical team since 2011. Currently the team is seeing 200 patients a day, all presenting complaints about the recent catastrophic floods that hit Bangladesh.  We are seeing a lot of women and children. They have problems like skin infections, eye infections, scabies, diarrhoea and asthma. We have even seen snake bites. When I see the children, I take the mother’s blood pressure and check her over too,” she explains.

Since cross-border operations started in July 2014, aid materials sent by UN organizations arrive at UN bases in Turkey, where materials are moved from Turkish international road transports (TIRs) to Syrian TIRs. Later, TIRs cross into Syria as aid convoys under the supervision of the UN. The aid is then distributed by the UN's local partners in Syria. The whole operation is coordinated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA).

Malawi has limited road access to rural areas, and after a flash flood earth roads can turn to rivers, completely cutting off affected communities. Using drones, we fly over the affected area and see clearly what the impact has been on the ground, using this information to inform the disaster response. The Disaster Coordinator, Blessings, called the crisis team together to discuss the assessment mission, the benefits of drones and how they can assist in coordinating the response.

The forest fires started on the coastal area on Sunday 16 July 2017, and spread quickly due to strong winds and dry weather. In Croatia, several villages around Split in Dalmatia were threatened by the fire, and many houses were left without gas and electricity. One person was killed in the fire and more than 3,500 square meters of forest area were destroyed.