Emergency

Dhunche is a remote village located high in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal, several hours away from Kathmandu. This is where a team of Canadian aid workers have set up tents and medical equipment, part of the Canadian Red Cross mobile field hospital, where they can provide medical care.

As the relief operation continues in areas of central Nepal devastated by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, hundreds of thousands of families face the prospect of another night in the open air, fearful of returning to their homes due to aftershocks.

In this setting, access to drinking water is limited access and there are sanitation challenges to overcome.

The Canadian Red Cross mobile field hospital is now on its way to Nepal, where it will provide medical care to people affected by the recent earthquake. More than 20 Canadian aid workers are being deployed to Nepal to staff the hospital.

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal on April 25. Authorities report over 2000 people have been killed and many buildings have collapsed in the capital, Kathmandu.

Canadian Red Cross delegate Karen Leiva is currently on a mission in Micronesia with the International Federation of Red Cross to assess the damage caused by Typhoon Maysak. It’s considered a silent disaster, as it has gone mostly unnoticed outside of the region and occurred on the heels of another emergency in the Pacific, Cyclone Pam. The Red Cross responds to hundreds of these silent disasters every year. Karen shares some of the challenges of reaching remote communities.

When Canadian Red Cross delegate Nicolas Verdy arrived in Vanuatu shortly after Severe Tropical Cyclone Pam, a category 5 storm, made landfall, he was amazed at the amount of destruction to buildings and vegetation but also at the resiliency of the people.

Thousands of people have been affected after Cyclone Pam, a category 5 storm, made landfall in Port Vila, Vanuatu, on Friday, March 13. This was the strongest tropical storm to make landfall since Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in November 2013. 

Losing touch with family members is common following disasters or conflicts. Communication lines get broken, families get dispersed and there’s no way of getting in touch. Often, families don’t even know where to start, or if their relatives are even alive.