RedR launches major fundraising appeal

RedR has launched a major fundraising appeal to support vital, on-the ground training of thousands of aid workers in East Africa to help save lives. IChemE is a patron of the disaster relief charity.

As the worst food crisis in more than 60 years continues to escalate in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan, leading humanitarian agencies from around the world are deploying teams to the region and mobilising thousands of local staff to help respond.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than ten million people in the eastern Horn are now at risk of severe malnutrition owing to long periods of drought, rising food prices and protracted conflict in certain areas. 

RedR, which already has a humanitarian training centre in Kenya, as well as in Sudan and South Sudan, is taking urgent steps to help support international agencies working to deliver vital aid.

These include activating its Recruitment Service to deal with requests for expert staff from humanitarian agencies working in East Africa, offering technical support and advice to aid workers across the region and, crucially, supplying vital training.

Over the coming weeks and months RedR expert trainers will deliver life-saving skills to thousands of humanitarian workers – many of them nationals of the affected countries. Importantly, this ensures large numbers of highly proficient humanitarian staff will remain in the region for the long-term. 

The training, in everything from water and sanitation techniques to safety and security to logistics and camp management, will ensure aid agencies are able to carry out their life-saving work to the highest possible standard. For the millions of malnourished, it will mean efficient, effective and reliable delivery of food, water, sanitation and shelter – put simply, more lives saved.

RedR is now preparing to operate a full-scale, open programme of trainings both in Nairobi and on a bespoke basis to aid agency staff, wherever they are located.

Requests for training are already coming in thick and fast. Over the next three months, RedR expert trainers will deliver technical sessions for aid workers from UNHCR, Oxfam, CARE, the Red Cross and the Norwegian Refugee Council. But we need to do more.

RedR’s Chief Executive, Martin McCann, said: “The scale of the crisis in East Africa cannot be underestimated. This is the worst food-related situation to hit the region in many, many years. Millions are already at risk. And, although we will not solve these myriad challenges overnight, the window for immediate response is short. The more aid workers we can train in essential and technical skills today, the more lives we can save in the months and years to come. We must act now.”