Welcome Amjad Saleem, new Manager of Inclusion, Protection and Engagement

Our new manager, Amjad Mohamed Saleem for the Inclusion, Protection and Engagement team started on 1st February. Amjad comes to the job with a wealth of knowledge in social inclusion, peace building and interfaith dialogue and youth engagement.

He is a political analyst on South Asian issues with expertise in Humanitarian and Development matters.  He is excited to be part of the IFRC.

Join us to give a warm welcome to Amjad.

New: Gender and Diversity Organisational Assessment Toolkit

The Gender and Diversity Organisational Assessment Toolkit is the first IFRC tool that focuses on gender and diversity in organisational development (OD) to support National Societies to fulfil commitments to gender and diversity sensitivity and equity. The toolkit can be downloaded here and is organised in 4 main documents.

#NotATarget

Thousands of people, over 50 countries, 1 message: Aid workers and volunteers are #NotATarget.

Around the globe

Volunteering Solutions Bank:  Educating the underprivileged children of Chittagong, Bangladesh

In Chittagong, almost half million people are poor and live in slum areas and a significant number of children do not go to school. The RCYs of Government Commerce College Unit started a school for underprivileged children. This is a free service led by College Red Crescent Youths. Within this project, the RCYs incorporated First Aid Training, and earthquake and fire evacuation.

Youth Development in the Americas

More than 600 young volunteers from the Costa Rica Red Cross attended their annual Youth Camp, 25 – 29 January. The activity was opened by the President of the Republic of Costa Rica and supported by the Vice-Ministry of Youth and the IFRC. In his speech, the President of the country congratulated the volunteers of the Red Cross for their continued humanitarian work, particularly during the recent Hurricane Otto emergency. Everyone enjoyed workshops, traditional fair, musical presentations and developed their skills and competencies.

Volunteering in the Americas

The Analysis of Volunteering and Youth in the Americas  was published and shared with National Societies in the region SP. This analysis is based on the baseline studies carried out since 2013 in relation to the development of volunteering in the region and enabled the foundation for “Strategies for Strengthening Volunteering and Youth”.

The National Convention on Volunteering Security took place in El Salvador on 15^th January with more than 300 Red Cross volunteers from all over the country. The Convention  reinforced the importance of investing and reinforcing the importance of security of volunteers that are in the frontline of the humanitarian services.

Gender-based violence in disasters: Cutting through the web of violence in Samoa

Samoa was one of the three Asia Pacific case studies that was commissioned by the IFRC as part of a global research initiative to strengthen GBV prevention and response during and after disasters.

Two major natural disasters, the tsunami of 2009 that killed 149 people and Cyclone Evan of 2012 that displaced close to 5,000 persons were examined for this research. Among the key findings of this piece of research was that persons displaced by the disasters in Samoa are at higher risk of GBV than those who manage to stay in their communities.

Relocation of rural Samoan communities seems to be one of the root causes increasing post disaster GBV risk and prevalence. As a follow up to the findings of the study, the Samoa Red Cross Society is mainstreaming GBV prevention and response measures into its community disaster and climate change risk management programmes.

In partnership with the National Disaster Council it has also helped in the identification of evaluation centres and shelters, ensuring there are safe spaces for women and girls.

Violence Prevention and Response

IFRC joins Global Partnership to End Violence against Children

Every five minutes, a child dies as a result of violence. An estimated 120 million girls and 73 million boys have been victims of sexual violence, and almost one billion children are subjected to physical punishment on a regular basis. IFRC joins Global Partnership to End Violence against Children

IFRC and MTV launch

IFRC and MTV launch “Sharif’s Story” about the protection of children on the move.

Launch of Alliance case studies including Philippines RC

Launch of Alliance case studies including Philippines Red Cross. Read the full case studies.

Haiti Red Cross protects children from violence and captures youth perspectives on protection in emergencies. Click here for story in English and French.

Humanitarian Education

Project Humanity

As a collaboration between the Swiss Agency for development and cooperation, the Institute for International Cooperation in Education (University of Teacher Education Zug), Save the Children  and National Red Cross Red Crescent Societies  organised a methodology and implementation workshop in Zurich from 10 – 12 January to prepare the second phase of pilots to take place in 4 African countries (Burundi, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Zambia) during the first quarter of 2017.

A Training of Trainers for staff and volunteers in charge of the pilots in Rwanda and Burundi was conducted in Rwanda from 23-27 January, and attended by 3 representatives from Rwanda Red Cross. Two participants of Burundi Red Cross will participate in the next training of trainers planned to take place in Harare from 6-10 February.

7 Skills for 7 Principles

A workshop on the practical application of the Fundamental Principles and humanitarian values through the development of personal skills was conducted as part of a seminar organized by the French Red Cross for 20 staff of its new department “Engagement, Training and Initiatives”. As part of this initiative, a 3-hour module was piloted to instil personal reflection and behavioural change. Plans are to have the module available to all staff and volunteers.

YABC

The first peer educator training of the year was organised by the Red Cross Society of China in Beijing, from the 15-22 January, for a total number of 60 participants. The Japanese Red Cross will follow with their first national peer educator training to take place from 5-9 March. For more information on the YABC initiative, please visit.

PASSA Youth is out!

The full package of PASSA Youth adaptation is now ready to be promoted and used! The adaptation has been a robust and exciting joint effort, led by IFRC Shelter & Youth teams, in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity and the support of Musintec.

The package includes the following set of materials in English and Spanish. Two promotional videos trailer 10 min video . The IFRC is actively looking into countries to introduce this new package and working on upcoming training of trainers.

What’s happening in 2017

We are glad to share with you a global calendar of Movement activities. Please update the calendar with regional or global events that your National Society is organizing.  We will be glad to promote the activities.