Australian Emergency Fund

Two years ago Australia experienced the worst bushfire season on record. Incredible generosity from people in Australia and worldwide enabled our grants and recovery program to support those impacted as they recover and rebuild their lives. While our grants have now been disbursed, our recovery work continues.

Disaster recovery is a long and complex process. It goes beyond finances or rebuilding, and includes people’s sense of hope and self-worth, family security and community cohesion. While our grants have now been disbursed, our recovery program continues to help individuals cope with trauma and access support; communities to heal and strengthen their connections; and service providers (including governments, other NGOs, and community services) to meet the unique needs of bushfire survivors.

As people get further into their recover, their thinking often turns to building resilience and preparedness for the potential threat of future disasters. Experience tells us that this typically occurs in the second and third years, particularly as anniversaries and high-risk weather seasons approach.

Our training workshops help communities to manage their own recovery. Topics range from psychological first aid and communicating in recovery, to disaster memorials, supporting children, and community activism after disasters. Red Cross staff and volunteers tailor our workshops to local needs. This supports community leaders and disaster recovery workers to apply new learning to the specific concerns in their communities.

We have a unique network of community leaders and experts from decades of supporting and working with communities after disasters. These people form our Disaster Recovery Advisors and Mentors initiative. Our Disaster Recovery Advisors and Mentors are volunteers with professional and lived experience of disaster recovery. Our staff work to connect people in disaster affected communities with our Mentors and Advisors. Mentors act as a sounding board for local leaders who are supporting their communities through the recovery process. When needed or requested, our Advisors attend local community forums to share their expertise on a range of disaster recovery issues.

Our recovery staff and volunteers live in affected communities. Some were impacted by the fires themselves. They understand the local context and help resolve and advocate for people’s needs.

Links:

• https://www.redcross.org.au/bushfirereport

Disasters are becoming more frequent, intense and unpredictable. One in three Australians will face a natural disaster in their lifetime, yet most people don’t think it will happen to them.

From 2019–2020 4,789 Red Cross staff and volunteers supported 83,715 people through 63 emergencies. This includes our response to the most destructive bushfire season on record and the COVID-19 pandemic.

While other agencies fight the fires and clean up the streets, Red Cross looks after the people. 

We help people cope with stressful and traumatic events by offering psychological first aid, linking them to information and services they need, helping them locate their loved ones, or just offering one-to-one support as people work out what to do next. 

We help in other ways depending on the location or the emergency: by supporting public appeals, running evacuation centres, providing food and relief supplies, or making phone calls to check on people who may be most at risk. 

Of course, we don’t just act in times of crisis. We help people and communities prepare for emergencies before they happen. Facilitating education and training workshops on the hazards communities face, so as to reduce their risks when they happen, educating children on what to do in an emergency, working with households to create personalised emergency plans and working with community, civil and government groups to advocate on the importance of psychosocial support before, during and after emergencies.

We also stay with communities after an emergency has happened, to support them on the long road to recovery.

• Case_Studies.pdf (PDF)
  
• Impact.pdf (PDF)