Asia Pacific

Their motto is ‘Always ready. Always there. Always first.’ And that is what the Philippine Red Cross staff and volunteers were when typhoon Rosita – internationally known as Yutu – threatened their islands at the end of October.

On 5 November it will be 3 months since a destructive and shallow earthquake measuring 6.4 magnitude and multiple aftershocks struck the island of Lombok, Indonesia. The epicentre was located inland, near Loloan Village in North Lombok Regency.

Meat is a luxury for people who have fled violence in Rakhine state and who are now living in camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Many of them live on a diet of rice, lentils, seasonal vegetables, spices, wheat and dry fish, most of which are food they are not used to eating.

Three months since the collapse of Laos’ Xe-Pian XeNamnoy hydropower dam cut a path of destruction through 13 villages in the province of Attapeu, many communities, including that of Mai Village, are finally able to move into government-built temporary housing after spending weeks in emergency shelters.

Dr Davitan is treating Nona, 60, for a fractured arm suffered in the tragic earthquake that shook parts of western Sulawesi to pieces late September. Minutes later, the Indonesian Red Cross ambulance navigates the cracked and damaged road, following the young man on his motorcycle. Seconds after arriving, the doctor and paramedic carefully assess Asriyah, 57, discovering a fractured upper leg. It’s the biggest bone in her body, the femur.