Monitoring
We are continually monitoring the global situation for extreme weather as well as areas of increased violence or tension. We are often monitoring a situation before the disaster hits.
To do this we use the most reliable reports and weather monitoring systems and our operations team make use of several online tools to analyse things such as global weather patterns to get ahead of a situation.
Monitoring also allows us to establish the scale of potential destruction, the numbers likely to be affected and exactly what help may be needed from us.
Decision to respond
When disasters strike we are ready to respond whenever we can.
Unfortunately, the challenge we face is huge and we can’t help everyone. That is why we have developed our ‘Decision to Respond‘ criteria. These questions help us make those tough decisions.
Most importantly, they help us prioritise the most vulnerable families around the world who wouldn’t otherwise receive the vital support they need.
Once a disaster hits we start to do all of the following...
1. Get in touch with local contacts, such as local Rotary
Often when a disaster strikes we connect with local contacts, such as partner agencies and local Rotarians, that we have worked with on a previous response. Getting a sense of what has happened and learning as much as possible about the local situation is incredibly important.
Local Rotary clubs often help us to learn more about the situation, we may also seek other agencies we could potentially collaborate with and start to get a sense of where there may be gaps in the overall response.
2. Prepare to send a team
Response Team members will be contacted to assess their availability as well as suitability to the response. A Response Team will be assembled and placed on standby if the decision is made to deploy.
3. Start moving aid
Our logistics team will look at stock levels of aid prepositioned in strategic locations around the world to ensure we have enough items available to respond and restock where needed. They will then also start to scope out possible routes that the aid could take to get into the country, weighing up things like cost and speed.