Monthly Newsletter
October 2017

Southeast Asian countries celebrated the International Day for Disaster Reduction 2017 and the ASEAN Day for Disaster Management

Throughout October, the Southeast Asian countries celebrated these global and regional day to encourage the public and governments to participate actively in building more resilient communities and nation. This day also marked the annual opportunity for the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to promote disaster risk reduction. Click here to read more

Red Cross Red Crescent induction held for governments in ASEAN AHA Centre Executive Programme

The AHA Centre Executive (ACE) Programme provides capacity building for professionals from National Disaster Management Offices of ASEAN Member States. Since 2014, IFRC has been identified by the AHA Centre as one of the key resource organizations for some modules of the course, given its expertise in international disaster management, emergency shelter, disaster law and logistics. This year, the induction course was held from 9 to 13 October. Click here to read more

Building Urban Resilience in Southeast Asia (ECHO funded)

Much progress has been reached by the regional program this month, including the continuation of public awareness and education campaign in Laos to disseminate key messages of disaster preparedness, in Vietnam on fire prevention and response. In Cambodia, climate change adaptation training was held to build local branch capacity. In the Philippines, progress includes school safety activities and capacity increase of local authorities in disaster preparedness and response. Click here to read more

Red Cross volunteers are trained in water and sanitation in emergencies in Laos

Water, sanitation and hygiene promotion in emergencies (E-WASH) training for Red Cross Volunteers was organized in Champasak Province, Lao PDR from 25 to 26 October 2017 to increase the Red Cross Branch disaster preparedness in this disaster-prone area. The training was followed by a handover of AP 700 Manpack water treatment equipment. Click here to read more

The Philippines: Housing Land and Property Rights in Disasters - Development of Red Cross Strategy

Beyond ensuring safe shelter design, it's important to consider and be responsive to the basic housing, land and property rights of disaster affected persons. Philippine Red Cross held a working group meeting to develop the strategy in its humanitarian shelter and settlement assistance. Click here to read more

Singapore Red Cross sends humanitarian aid to communities in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Singapore Red Cross (SRC) deployed an advanced team to assess the needs of the affected communities, and to assist with relief distribution, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh from 4 to 10 October. Working alongside the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and IFRC, SRC distributed US$30,000 worth of relief items to aid the affected communities in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State. Click to read more

Singapore Red Cross & Singapore Polytechnic groom young humanitarian leaders

The two institutions inked an agreement to collaborate on the development and provision of courses in Humanitarian Studies and its related programmes. The agreement signing ceremony took place at the commencement of the Diploma-Plus Certificate Programme in Humanitarian Affairs offered by Singapore Polytechnic. Click to read more

Gender-sensitive community-based disaster risk management project in ethnic minority areas of northwest Vietnam: 42-month effort with many achievements

Implemented by the Vietnam Red Cross and partners from 2014 to September 2017, in 12 communes and wards of ethnic minorities in Lai Chau and Son La, northwest Vietnam, the project has brought about positive impacts in capacity building of local officials, and in mitigation construction, raised awareness and consideration of gender issues in all project activities. Click to read more

Vietnam Red Cross: On the path to build a stronger national society

Vietnam Red Cross held a workshop last October and worked to identify tailor-made organizational development and capacity building approaches as well as develop road map and strategies. This process is a follow-up from the Organizational Capacity and Certification (OCAC) process completed back in 2014. Click here to read more

Vietnam: Making disaster law accessible and fun for community-level dissemination

Despite flooding across several provinces, Vietnam Red Cross, the Women’s Union and IFRC gathered in Vinh, Nghe An province to participate in the ‘Know Your Rights, Roles and Responsibilities in Disaster Management’ (Know Your 3Rs) on 13-14 October 2017. This marked the first Training of Trainers on disaster law community dissemination to be held in Vietnam. Click here to read more

Thai Red Cross flood relief operations

The heavy rains which started from the beginning of July until late October 2017 had led to severe flash floods and flooding, and have affected many provinces in north, northeastern and central Thailand. The impact has spread even wider, affecting 23 provinces and more than 125,000 households. The Thai Red Cross Society, government at provincial level, and Thailand's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation have been assisting by distribution relief kits as well as food and non-food items to affected people. Click here to read more

Are the next 3 months likely to be unusually wet or dry? For more information, click here.
For meteorological agency in the respective Southeast Asian countries, visit :Brunei Darussalam | Cambodia | Indonesia | Laos | Malaysia | Myanmar | Philippines | Singapore | Thailand | Vietnam

Upcoming events for November to December 2017
November	6-8	Canadian Red Cross monitoring visit / RRI technical working group meeting	Bangkok, Thailand
	6-8	Asia Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration	Bangkok, Thailand
	6-10	PASSA Youth Regional Training of Trainers	Manila, Philippines
	12-17	DPRK RCS delegation Regional Visit (peer to peer learning exchange program CBHFA)	Philippines
	14 – 15	Disaster Law ToT – Northern chapters	Viet Nam
	14	Gender Inequality of Risks (GIR) Donor roundtable	Bangkok,
	14 - 21	Emergency Response and Assessment Team (ERAT) Training	Hua Hin, Thailand
	15 - 17	Asia Pacific Regional PMER meeting	Kuala Lumpur
	20 - 21	Gender and Diversity refresher training	Cambodia
	21 - 22	Gender and Diversity technical review workshop	Bangkok, Thailand
	20-22	Disaster Law – chapter training roll out	Philippines
	20-23	Rapid Assessments of Markets (RAM) Training	Philippines
	20-24	Basic WASH in Emergency Response Training	Philippines
	23-24	Disaster Law ToT – Southern Central chapters	Viet Nam
	27	Official launch of Virtual Volunteer Application in PH	Philippines
	27 – 1 Dec	Emergency Needs Assessment (ENA)	Manila, Philippines
	27- 29	PSSie Training of Trainers	Manila, Philippines
	28-29	Disaster Law ToT – Mekong Delta chapters	Viet Nam
	27-1 Dec	Gender and Diversity in VCA training	Viet Nam
	29-30	National Climate Change Law Consultation	Lao PDR
	Various dates	Advocacy events in selected countries for 16 days of activism against gender-based violence (Nov 25 – Dec 10)	Various countries
December	1st week of December	Emergency and Recovery Livelihoods Assessment and Response Option Analysis (ERLA) Training	Manila, Philippines
	4	Gender and diversity training for the new leadership of Thai Red Cross	Thailand
	4-8	Gender and Diversity in VCA field School	Cambodia
	7-8	DIPECHO Lessons Learnt Workshop	Bangkok, Thailand
	8	Philippine Red Cross (PRC) technical working group meeting on 2nd draft PRC Housing, Land and Property Strategy	Philippines
	11-16	Regional Disaster Response Team (RDRT) training	Philippines
	11-16	Operations Manager’s Training	Manila, Philippines
	12-14	Violence Prevention Integration into CBHFA Training	Cambodia

Pacific youth want world to hear and act on climate change

Esther Nabuti, a young Kiribati Red Cross volunteer, has a message for the world: “I want the world to know what is happening in Kiribati, what climate change is doing to my beautiful home. I want to invite the world here, so they can see its impacts, its scars. I wonder, would they let this happen to their home? I want to tell them that the Pacific is their home too. My Pacific is their Pacific.” Climate change across many Pacific islands is a reality. In Kiribati, one of the islands most affected by a changing climate, 49 Pacific youth, came together in October for the Red Cross Pacific Youth Climate Change Forum. Click to read more

Community engagement and accountability: Good practices from around the world (2017)

This publication presents examples of community engagement and accountability initiatives being implemented by the Movement in both emergency and longer-term contexts. The work done in Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East stands testament to how community engagement and accountability is not only enabling ICRC and IFRC to better respond to the needs of the communities they serve but also in reducing the communities’ vulnerability and in building safer, more resilient communities. Click here to download

How to use social media to better engage people affected by crises

The use of social media by humanitarian organizations to engage and communicate with (not about) affected people is, to date, still vastly untapped, and largely under researched and documented in terms of the provision of practical guidance, both thematically and technically, good practices and lessons learned. This document serves as a brief guide for those using social media in humanitarian organizations. Click here to download

Communication with Communities in disaster emergency response and recovery: Volunteers Guideline 

This guideline aims to enhance knowledge and capacity of the volunteers regarding communication with community in implementing disaster emergency response and recover activities. Click here to download

Indonesian Red Cross Society: Working towards school safety

This brochure highlights and maps Indonesian Red Cross Society (PMI) activities to support school safety, including the challenges and ways forward. The activities are grouped following the three pillars of Comprehensive School Safety. Click here to download

Cambodian Red Cross Society: Working towards school safety

This brochure highlights and maps Cambodian Red Cross activities to support school safety, including the challenges and ways forward. The activities are grouped following the three pillars of Comprehensive School Safety. Click here to download