International Rescue Committee Emergency Response

When conflict erupts or natural disaster strikes, the International Rescue Committee delivers rapid, lifesaving aid.

Emergency Response

ii IRC Emergency Response

The IRC is treating malnourished children at 35 health clinics in southern Mali, where a severe drought and political turmoil has created a food crisis.

1IRC Emergency Response

Since its founding in 1933, the International Rescue Committee has responded to nearly every major global humanitarian crisis.

From World War II to the war in the Balkans, from famine in Biafra to the Indian Ocean tsunami, the IRC has provided essential relief when conflict erupts or disaster strikes. In 2013, the IRC has risen to new challenges, including the civil war in Syria, flooding in Nigeria, and conflict and drought in Mali. In each instance, the IRC rushed aid and experts to the affected areas without delay, delivering lifesaving assistance to people in need.

Responding to the urgent needs of people fleeing violent conflict or natural disaster is one of the most critical functions of the IRC’s Emergency Response and Preparedness Unit. It is during the first few critical days of an emergency that deaths can occur on a massive scale, largely because of preventable and treatable diseases. Rapid assistance can save lives.

The sudden and violent displacement of tens of thousands of people can also disrupt and destroy families. Children are often separated from their parents. Women and girls become susceptible to physical abuse and sexual aggression. Providing help to fleeing civilians is often the first step toward their long-term protection and rehabilitation. Slow-onset emergencies, such as food crises due to drought, also require support to help people survive and then to recover.

The following pages tell the stories of the men and women who lead the IRC’s emergency relief efforts and of the bravery and resilience of the displaced and uprooted people they serve.

Contents

2 IRC Emergency Responses Around the World 3 Anatomy of an Emergency Response 4 Inside Syria: The IRC Responds 8 Global First Responder 12 Displaced in Mogadishu 16 Emergencies in IRC History 18 Profile in Courage 20 Our Corporate Rescue Partners

On the cover: Tens of thousands of Syrians, mostly ethnic Kurds, have fled to Domiz camp in Iraq. The majority of the refugees are children.


JordanIraq

Pakistan

Myanmar

Japan

Thailand

SomaliaKenya

Chad

SouthSudan Ethiopia

Mali

DemocraticRepublic of Congo

NigerYemen

Syria* Jordan**Iraq**Turkey**Lebanon**

Yemen *

*Democratic Republic of Congo

Mali ****Niger **

South Sudan **Chad ***

Nigeria ***Pakistan ***Myanmar ***Thailand ***Japan ***

Somalia ****Kenya ***Ethiopia ***

Key:*Internal con�ict **refugee crisis*** Natural disaster**** Internal con�ict & natural disaster

Nigeria

TurkeySyria

Lebanon

IRC Emergency Responses Around the World 2010 - 2013

Internal conflict

Refugee crisis

Natural disaster

Internal conflict & natural disaster

2 IRC Emergency Response

JordanIraq

Pakistan

Myanmar

Japan

Thailand

SomaliaKenya

Chad

SouthSudan Ethiopia

Mali


NigerYemen

Syria* Jordan**Iraq**Turkey**Lebanon**

Yemen *

*Democratic Republic of Congo

Mali ****Niger **

South Sudan **Chad ***

Nigeria ***Pakistan ***Myanmar ***Thailand ***Japan ***

Somalia ****Kenya ***Ethiopia ***

Key:*Internal con�ict **refugee crisis*** Natural disaster**** Internal con�ict & natural disaster

Nigeria

TurkeySyria

Lebanon

Anatomy of an Emergency ResponseRapid DeploymentRecognizing that a crisis can strike at any moment, the IRC has an emergency team on standby, able to deploy within 72 hours. We make it a priority to conduct regular assessments of countries at risk, which helps us respond before a crisis reaches a tipping point.

The IRC’s watch list monitors the likelihood of a natural disaster or emergency in countries across the globe and the capacity of governments to respond effectively. The watch list identifies high-risk countries and the Emergency Preparedness and Response Unit monitors the situation and draws up a provisional plan that will enable it to respond quickly and effectively if and when the need arises.

PreparednessThe IRC is committed to emergency preparedness—giving its field teams and local partners the training and resources necessary to respond to crises quickly. The IRC stockpiles equipment and supplies in Rotterdam, one of the largest and most advanced ports in the world, allowing it to dispatch aid immediately wherever it is most needed. Members of the Emergency Response Team are on standby around the world to ensure we have the expertise to respond to large-scale and multiple

emergencies. The IRC has developed a classification framework to describe the severity of a situation based on three categories: emergency, crisis, and catastrophe. The classification is determined by the impact the situation will have on the population and the environment, and how effectively the government is able to respond. Once a situation is classified, the IRC determines whether it is safe for emergency team members to go into a country to provide food, shelter, health care and services to displaced people in need.

Professional TeamsBased around the globe, IRC emergency teams include professionals with experience working on virtually every continent and responding to some of the world’s worst crises.

Each emergency team has expertise in logistics; medicine, water and sanitation; child protection; counseling for women who have been raped or attacked; and economic recovery

The IRC currently has more than 50 emergency staff members available to bolster responses around the world.

Targeted ResponseAfter being deployed, the Emergency Response Team conducts a needs assessment to determine what assistance is required. Such assistance can range from building wells and providing health care, to helping people restart businesses by distributing seeds for the planting season.



More than four million people have been displaced within Syria by a bloody civil war now entering its third year and some 100,000 people have been killed.

Here is how the IRC is aiding Syrians trapped by the violence inside their country.

Inside Syria: The IRC RespondsBy Peter Biro


Opposite page: More than four million people have been displaced inside Syria. The IRC, working with Syrian partner aid organizations, provides vital aid and services to desperate Syrians seeking refuge in makeshift camps. Top: Children carry boxes of supplies at an IRC distribution center in northern Syria. Over 600,000 Syrians have received bedding, flashlights, plastic sheeting, stoves and other items. Above: To prevent the outbreak of disease in the crowded camps,

IRC emergency teams have built latrines, wells and sewers and trucked in clean water.

Ahmed, 35, crouches in a cramped, dank tent pitched on a hill in northern Syria close to the border with Turkey. He stares at an image on his mobile phone of a smiling six-year-old girl, her light brown hair tied into a ponytail.

“She was my daughter,” he says quietly.

On Feb. 21, she and four of her young friends were torn apart by shrapnel and flying debris during a missile attack on their village near the city of Hama in central Syria. Ahmed and what remained of his family fled the village that night, heading north where they hoped to find shelter and safety.

Looking out from Ahmed’s tent, one sees rows of makeshift shelters amid the groves of olive trees that stretch across the rolling hills and valleys. This is one of several camps home to some 13,000 desperate, displaced civilians who have fled the ferocious civil war, now in its third year.

It is a forlorn place lacking water, food and medicine. Syrian rebels control the dusty roads surrounding the camp and it is not easy to cross the border into Turkey. Instead the IRC is bringing aid and relief from Turkey directly to the camps.

“This is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.”


Above: The war has disrupted education for countless children. The IRC runs three schools in camps in northern Syria. It also provides counseling and helps reunite children and families separated while fleeing violence. Opposite Page: An IRC psychologist (center) working with

Syrian women in Irbid, Jordan. The sessions help refugees cope with challenges they face in their host country as well as what they may have experienced in war-torn Syria.

Since January 2013, an IRC emergency team, working with a network of Syrian partner aid organizations, has trucked blankets, plastic sheeting, stoves, medicine and other essential items to people in need, crossing the border around the clock. IRC-trained engineers, health workers and child-protection specialists have built latrines and wells and set up schools and clinics to serve camp residents and displaced people.

The situation for children in the camps is especially grim. They spend their days in crowded tents or scavenging for firewood. Most have not attended school since the war began. Many suffer from trauma, having witnessed the killing of relatives—a recent study by a Turkish university found that three out of four Syrian youngsters have lost a loved one in the fighting.

“These children have witnessed horrible things and it will take a very long time for them to heal,” says an IRC child and youth protection coordinator working at one of the camps. “What they need is emotional support and to see that someone cares. Otherwise we’re going to lose this generation entirely.”

At another camp nearby, the IRC has set up three schools where girls and boys learn reading and math and participate in arts and crafts, soccer and jump rope.

The schools offer the children a sense of normality, says the IRC youth coordinator. “It’s not much but it’s a start to the healing process.”

Over the next few months, the IRC plans to expand its aid to the displaced people here by bringing in more water and emergency supplies, deploying mobile health teams and setting up new health clinics.

“This is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world,” says Bob Kitchen, the director of the IRC’s global Emergency Preparedness and Response Unit. “The need is massive and our response must be commensurate to the need.”

In the meantime, people keep arriving at the camps. “They come here just like we did,” says Ahmed. “With nothing except the clothes we fled in.”

“ These children have witnessed horrible things and it will take a very long time for them to heal.”

IRC Emergency Response

JORDAN

SYRIA

LEBANON

IRAQ★Damascus

ISRAELSAUDI ARABIA

TURKEY

7

A Regional EmergencyThe civil war in Syria has plunged the Middle East into a humanitarian crisis. Millions of Syrians have been forced from their homes and 1.8 million have fled to overburdened neighboring countries. With no end to the crisis in sight, as many as 12 million Syrians could be in need of humanitarian assistance by the end of 2013.

The IRC is marshaling a humanitarian response to help the thousands of people crossing Syria’s borders every day, providing medical and other critical aid, helping women who have been victimized by violence, and ensuring that refugees have access to their legal rights.

In Jordan, which has absorbed over 500,000 refugees, the IRC provides primary and reproductive health care at clinics in the border cities of Mafraq and Ramtha, offers social services and individual and group counseling to

refugee families, and provides support to survivors of sexual violence. In Jordan’s refugee camps, the IRC provides support for refugee women and is helping to reunite children with their families.

In Lebanon, home to more than 620,000 refugees, the IRC operates four women’s centers and has launched a unique cash assistance program that helps both Syrian refugees and local Lebanese to pay for rent, food, utilities and other essentials.

In Iraq, at the Domiz refugee camp in the north of the country, the IRC provides camp management and a safe space for women and is building a secondary school for refugee children. At Al Qaim camp, near the border with Syria, the IRC is providing free legal assistance, mobilizing community groups and helping survivors of sexual violence.

Lebanon

Jordan

Iraq

Syria

Damascus

Economic recovery

Education & child protection

Emergency supplies

Health care

Water, sanitation & hygiene

Women’s protection & empowerment

Syria Crisis:The IRC Response

Turkey

JordanIraq

Pakistan

Myanmar

Japan

Thailand

SomaliaKenya

Chad

SouthSudan Ethiopia

Mali


NigerYemen

Nigeria

TurkeySyria

Lebanon

Mediterranean Sea


A natural disaster or the outbreak of war or violence can turn lives upside down in an instant, driving millions of people from their homes and devastating communities. When catastrophe strikes, the IRC is prepared to deliver rapid, lifesaving aid. The IRC has responded to emergencies in more than a dozen countries during the past three years. On the following three pages are stories of some recent emergency responses.

Global First Responder


Opposite page: Water-borne diseases such as diarrhea are among the biggest killers of malnourished children. In Mali, the IRC is providing water and sanitation services at 21 health centers that serve thousands of people weekly. Below: A woman sits in the remains of a house destroyed by flooding in Ibaji, Nigeria.

MaliArmed rebellion, political turmoil and a severe drought have combined to plunge the West African nation of Mali into a complex humanitarian crisis. Over 450,000 people in northern Mali were displaced after Islamist militants seized control of the region in 2012, while throughout the country, hundreds of thousands more, especially children, faced the risk of acute malnutrition.

The IRC’s Emergency Response Team arrived in Mali shortly after the crisis erupted, delivering vital aid in both the north and south. In the embattled northern Gao region, the team delivered clean drinking water, medicine and other supplies to over 80,000 people. In the south, the team launched a multifaceted response to the hunger crisis, combining nutrition, child protection, and water and sanitation.

The IRC now works in 35 community centers providing treatment and follow-up care to malnourished children as well as promoting child protection and repairing water and sanitation systems. In the wake of French forces driving the militants out of the north earlier

this year, the IRC is working with a local aid organization to reopen schools and provide services to young people, including play and support groups for displaced children.

NigeriaIn the autumn of 2012, heavy rains caused the rivers that wind their way across Nigeria to overflow, displacing an estimated two million people. The floodwaters decimated crops and communities.

Bobi Morris, who led the IRC’s emergency response in Nigeria, described seeing villages where 80 percent of buildings had been swept away. Survivors lacked access to shelter and clean water and were “at grave risk of disease.”

The IRC delivered safe drinking water and urgently needed supplies, including cooking utensils, bedding and clothing, to these devastated villages. After the floodwaters receded, the IRC and a local Nigerian aid organization launched medium-

When catastrophe strikes, the IRC is prepared to deliver rapid, lifesaving aid.


and long-term agricultural recovery projects in the hard-hit Ibaji region. The projects will reach an estimated 48,000 people in 16 of Ibaji’s poorest villages and will help ensure economic recovery by providing seeds, tools and training to farmers.

Yemen Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, has been beset by civil unrest and economic crisis for years. A 2011 uprising inspired by the Arab Spring ended the 33-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh but left the country on the brink of catastrophe. According to the United Nations, Yemen has the second highest rate of malnutrition in the world, trailing only Afghanistan. In southern Yemen, conflict between separatist militias and government forces has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

In 2012, the IRC Emergency Response Team went to southern Yemen to assess the health of the local population. They found

that fighting had forced health professionals to flee and left most people without medical care. The team quickly moved to restore the nearly abandoned Adan Sora health clinic in Adan province, supplying doctors, nurses, drugs and medical supplies, and dispatched mobile medical clinics to reach tens of thousands of displaced people in remote areas. Today, the Adan Sora clinic serves some 100,000 people. The clinic’s reproductive health center provides 200 women each month with pre- and postnatal care, family planning and 24/7 delivery services.

South SudanTwo years after achieving independence after decades of brutal civil war, South Sudan remains locked in a simmering conflict with its neighbor Sudan. In 2012, Sudan bombed anti-government rebels in the Nuba Mountains near its southern border, forcing tens of thousands of refugees to flee into South Sudan. Many sought shelter in an informal camp known as Yida.

Left: A mother and her daughter stand in the doorway of a school where they have been living since fleeing violence in Abyan in southern Yemen. Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East. Below: The IRC offers support services and opened a women’s wellness center at the Yida camp in South Sudan for refugees fleeing violence across the border in Sudan. Opposite

page: An IRC staff member assists people displaced by violence in Congo’s North Kivu province. Some 100,000 displaced people live in camps in the region.

IRC Emergency ResponseIRC Emergency Response 11

The IRC Emergency Response Team opened a women’s wellness center in the Yida camp to support refugee women who had reported being sexually assaulted during their flight from Sudan or after arriving in Yida. The center provides confidential physical and emotional care and also offers comprehensive pregnancy and reproductive health services. “The IRC’s work is critical to the well-being of pregnant women, babies, new mothers and survivors of sexual and domestic violence,” says Stefanie Pucetti, the IRC’s emergency women’s protection and empowerment manager in Yida.

Democratic Republic of CongoThe humanitarian emergency in the Democratic Republic of Congo may be the most protracted and complex in the world. Parts of Congo, especially in the east along the borders with Uganda and Rwanda, have been mired in rebellion and mayhem since the mid-1990s. Many rebel groups sustain control by

seizing mining operations or taxing the mineral trade and are infamous for using rape as a weapon of war. Last year, when the M23 rebel group captured Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, tens of thousands fled the city and surrounding villages for makeshift camps on its outskirts. The IRC, which has been working in Congo since 1996 and maintains one of the country’s largest aid programs, responded to the crisis by providing emergency nutrition, health care and education.

The IRC has prioritized assistance to survivors of sexual violence, distributing over 12,000 emergency kits to women. Each kit contains a range of personal items and a flashlight and a whistle for women to signal for help if they are in danger.

Although M23 eventually withdrew from Goma, the humanitarian situation in the region remains precarious. The IRC is continuing programs in camps around Goma, where almost 100,000 people remain displaced.

The humanitarian emergency in Congo may be the most protracted and complex in the world.

After over two decades of civil war, a sense of relative calm and security has returned to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. The fearsome al-Shabab, who once controlled much of the country, has been subdued, and the roadblocks that divided the city between government forces and the insurgents have been removed. Donkey carts share the dusty streets with overloaded minibus taxis and four-wheel drives. Vendors hawk snacks by the roadside and small groups of men drink their morning tea under the shade of trees.

Displaced in MogadishuBy Peter Biro



But as life returns to normal in Mogadishu, its people, scarred by decades of conflict, face huge problems. Kidnappings, suicide attacks and roadside bombs are still frequent occurrences. Meanwhile, a deadly combination of fighting and famine has driven as many as 370,000 people from Somalia’s countryside to seek shelter in Mogadishu. Most live in the rubble of bullet-scarred buildings or in some 500 makeshift camps where families eke out a living under scraps of tarpaulin and cloth supported by sticks.

Adbullahi Ali Mohammed lives in a small tent at a camp near the Mogadishu airport. He arrived in the capital two years ago after a two-week trek from his home village in the famine-stricken south. During the journey, his children, aged 3, 5 and 7, died from hunger and disease.

“I lost my family, my two cows, everything,” Mohammed says. “I began to lose my mind as well.”

To help people like Mohammed, the IRC’s Emergency Response Team arrived in Mogadishu in 2011 to assess the health needs of the city’s displaced population. Working with the Somali government and local nongovernmental organizations, the IRC rehabilitated and rebuilt four health centers that serve camps for displaced people and nearby neighborhoods. Every day scores of people line up outside the health centers seeking treatment for a range of illnesses.

“Displaced people live in crowded and unhealthy conditions where disease can spread easily,” says Dr. Marian Hashi, who coordinates the IRC’s health programs. “Children are especially vulnerable.”

The IRC has trained some 50 local community health workers to teach displaced Somalis how to identify and prevent cholera, dysentery and other diseases. Many displaced people suffer from post-traumatic stress brought on by violence and the horror of losing family members, and health workers are trained

Opposite page: Some 370,000 displaced people are living in Mogadishu, where they have occupied abandoned government offices, schools and other public buildings, turning them into makeshift shelters. Below: The IRC has rehabilitated and rebuilt four health centers that serve camps for displaced people and the neighborhoods where they live. Every day hundreds of people seek treatment for a range of illnesses. Right: An IRC community health worker informs displaced Somalis how to identify and prevent cases of cholera, malaria and other diseases.

Displaced people live in crowded and unhealthy conditions where disease can spread easily. Children are especially vulnerable.


to recognize symptoms and offer referrals for counseling and medical care at IRC clinics.

One such referral is Hawa Jaylani. Only 30 years old, Jaylani has already experienced a lifetime of loss. Four of her seven children died during an outbreak of measles in the crowded camp where she lives. Now expecting another child, she has come to the IRC clinic for a checkup. A midwife listens for a fetal heartbeat and makes sure that Jaylani is getting proper nutrition.

In the next room, Ibrahim Mahmoud, a clinic officer, examines a severely malnourished child. “Malnutrition is widespread and we are seeing more and more if it,” he says. “Children are especially susceptible to disease and bacteria and must be treated right away. This child received care in time.”

Somalia’s new government, the first to assert real authority in the country since 1991, has announced plans to relocate tens of thousands of displaced people to camps on the outskirts of Mogadishu. It is unclear if they will ever be able to return to their home villages.

“If people are able to return, the IRC will help them do so safely and get back on their feet,” says Prafulla Mishra, who until recently was the director of the IRC’s programs in Somalia. “At the same time, there are tens of thousands of displaced people in Mogadishu who will continue to need our help for a long time to come.”

Top: Ibrahim Mahmoud, an IRC clinic officer, examines a malnourished child. Above Mogadishu’s displaced people live in crowded camps or settlements where they try to eke out a living. Opposite page: One of some 500 sprawling camps for displaced people in Mogadishu.

“ There are tens of thousands of displaced people in Mogadishu who will continue to need our help for a long time to come.”

IRC Emergency Response 15

1971

The IRC provides extensive support, especially medical, health and education, for the 10 million East Pakistani refugees fleeing to India. The work continues as the refugees return to their new nation of Bangladesh.

1980

The IRC launches emergency relief programs in Pakistan for Afghan refugees following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

1984

In El Salvador, the IRC initiates a broad range of health, child care and community development projects for displaced victims of civil war.

1987

The IRC responds to an exodus of one million refugees from Mozambique to Malawi.

1992

The IRC begins relief work in the former Yugoslavia in the aftermath of the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The IRC later launches comprehensive programs in Bosnia.

The IRC was founded in 1933 in response to the rise of Nazi terror in Germany, subsequently helping thousands to escape from Nazi-occupied France and continuing to aid refugees in Europe long after the end of World War II. By the 1960s, the IRC’s mandate had expanded beyond the borders of Europe. During this time it helped families fleeing Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Southeast Asia and, in 1962, Angola, its first major operation in Africa. By the 1970s, the IRC had grown into a global aid and relief organization with the capacity to respond to multiple emergencies and skilled at the logistics of providing medicine, sanitation, water, shelter and schooling in large refugee camps and communities of displaced people. Since then, the IRC has responded to nearly every major international emergency including, since 2005, those created by natural disaster. Here are some key moments in that history.

Emergencies in IRC History

Afghan refugees Crisis in Bosnia


Rwandan refugees

1994

The IRC sets up emergency programs to aid refugees from Rwanda, pouring into Tanzania and the former Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo) as a result of the genocide and ensuing civil war.

1999

When 800,000 people pour out of Kosovo after a Yugoslav offensive, the IRC establishes emergency operations to assist the refugees in Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro.

Emergency operations are launched in East Timor following a rampage by Indonesian militias that leaves tens of thousands of people homeless.

2003

Following the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, the IRC launches water and sanitation and health care support for the conflict’s victims. Later, the IRC launches a campaign to aid over 4 million displaced and uprooted Iraqis.

2003

IRC programs expand in West Africa, with continued war in Liberia and new fighting in Ivory Coast, and growing populations of refugees and displaced persons in those countries and in Guinea and Sierra Leone. Programs include health, education, family reunification and gender-based violence prevention.

2004

IRC mobile relief teams deliver emergency services and supplies to Aceh, Indonesia, the region closest to the epicenter of the devastating Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in December.

Emergency teams are dispatched to the Darfur region of Sudan following a brutal government crackdown. The IRC begins providing services to Darfuri refugees in neighboring Chad.

Conflict in Darfur


Earthquake in Haiti

2005

Following an earthquake in Pakistan, IRC emergency teams aid 250,000 people and treat thousands of the sick and injured.

2006

Working with local groups, the IRC provides assistance to thousands of people affected by fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

2007

Responding to violence in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo that displaces 25,000 people, the IRC boosts its emergency response and launches programs to combat rising sexual violence in the region.

2010

The IRC responds to major natural disasters: a devastating earthquake in Haiti and the worst flooding in Pakistan’s history.

2011

The IRC responds to a devastating drought in East Africa with a region-wide aid effort providing livestock, water, hygiene and medical care to tens of thousands of refugees and displaced people.

Conflict in Darfur Displacement in Congo

Drought in East Africa

Flooding in Pakistan

The IRC has responded to nearly every international emergency including, since 2005, those created by natural disaster.

Flooding in Pakistan

An IRC first responder talks about the difficulties and satisfactions of bringing emergency aid to people in extreme need, often in unthinkable conditions.

Humanitarian aid workers are dedicated men and women from many countries who forego their own security and comfort to face dangers and horrors that most of us cannot imagine. They are also witnesses to the best that humanity has to offer: courage, self-sacrifice and compassion.

Melody Munz, 50, is senior environmental health coordinator with the IRC’s Emergency Response Team. A veteran of humanitarian emergencies, the Winnipeg, Canada, native has been with the IRC since 2005. When interviewed earlier this year, she was a member of an emergency team responding to the Syrian refugee crisis on the Syria-Turkey border.

Q: What motivated you to become an aid worker? A: I’ve always sought out new experiences and been interested in how people cope with their problems. When I was 19 years old, I visited a village in Sri Lanka where the government had donated a tractor to remove debris after a storm. But the tractor came with no fuel. The villagers tied elephants to the tractor and hauled it away. I realized that when it comes to helping people, good intentions are not enough, and I became interested in learning what one can do that will work.

Profile in Courage


Q: What was your journey from that moment to working with the IRC today? A: I studied engineering and practiced engineering in Canada and later became an environmental consultant in California. When I turned 40, I was contemplating a career change when I saw an ad for a water quality advisor in Indonesia. I thought I would do that for two years, but in early 2005, after a devastating tsunami struck Indonesia, a friend who worked for the IRC called me and said they needed more “boots on the ground.” I’ve been with the IRC ever since. I thought about leaving once and quickly realized that this is where I belong and this is the work I want to do.

Q: What is your role at IRC? A: As part of the Emergency Response Team, I am one of the first people to arrive at the scene of a new emergency. My job is to assess the situation and to figure out what we can do to alleviate people’s suffering as quickly as possible. As an environmental health engineer, I try to help communities improve their immediate living conditions and head off a public health disaster.

Q: What has been your most memorable moment or achievement? A: A moment that comes to mind is stopping our car in the Central African Republic to pick up a woman in labor who was walking down the road. We brought her to a clinic the IRC had just rehabilitated. Later that day, we met her, her husband and her newborn baby at the clinic and took them home. You don’t forget things like that. Any time a mission that I am on

is successful, I feel good because it means we’ve helped a community to recover from a disaster or conflict.

Q: What have you found most difficult or challenging? A: It’s difficult to be a witness to the senseless destruction of people’s lives. Not just the killing, but the psychological wounds that may never heal, the destruction of homes, of dreams. It can be hard not to lose hope. I feel that if I can be a part of making one person’s life better, that’s something, and it’s a helpful thought when the problems seem so overwhelming.

Q: What is the most surprising thing you have witnessed in the field? A: When I first started, everything seemed surprising: How hard the earth could shake during the aftershocks of the earthquake in Haiti; how unnerving it was to explain to a rebel commander in the Central African Republic why we were not going to fix his well ahead of civilians while his soldiers were all around us, guns out. It’s also surprising how quickly people will mobilize to help out with just a little direction, whether it is building large tent shelters in Haiti or hundreds of community-constructed toilets in the Central African Republic.

Q: What would you like to achieve through your work in the future? A: I would like to inspire others to find a way to get involved — even in a small way — to help those in need. Maybe if more of us paid attention to what is happening in the world, there wouldn’t be so much pain and suffering.

Opposite page and above: During her career as an aid worker, Melody Munz has traveled to a dozen countries, including Haiti, where she served as coordinator of the IRC’s environmental health program after the 2010 earthquake.

“ I’ve always sought out new experiences and been interested in how people cope with their problems.”


Our Corporate Rescue Partners


Rewards of Partnership

The American Express Foundation and the IRC share a long history of helping people in need. For over a decade, the Foundation has provided grants and matching employee donations to support IRC emergency relief efforts.

Since becoming a founding participant in the IRC’s Emergency Response Reserve Fund in 2011, the American Express Foundation has contributed to the IRC’s response to the devastating drought in the Horn of Africa and in the Sahel and to natural disasters in Myanmar and Haiti. As a Corporate Rescue Partner, the Foundation receives exclusive IRC updates as emergencies unfold to share with its internal stakeholders.

“The IRC has strong roots in many regions of the world and is able to develop strategies to address disaster needs quickly and provide assistance in the most meaningful ways,” says Timothy J. McClimon, president of American Express Foundation. “We trust that the support we provide the IRC is reaching the communities in need and is being well utilized.”

Corporate Rescue Partners is an active community of diverse businesses united in their support for the IRC’s emergency response efforts around the world. Corporate Rescue Partners make vital contributions on an annual basis to the IRC Humanitarian Fund, designated solely for the IRC’s Emergency Response Team. Partners have the additional option of contributing resources to the IRC Emergency Response Reserve Fund, through which they can direct allocations to crises that require urgent funding and that align with the priorities of their companies and employees. Corporate Rescue Partners also receive emergency field reports and the opportunity for employees to volunteer with the IRC. We salute our generous Corporate Rescue Partners.

Corporate Rescue Partners are critical to the IRC’s early response when an emergency occurs.

Corporate Rescue Partners help support IRC emergency response efforts around the world including providing aid to needy people inside Syria. Opposite

page (inset): An IRC aid worker weighs a child as part of a program to fight malnutrition in Mali. The American Express Foundation has supported the IRC’s emergency response to the drought in Mali and the Sahel.

Corporate Rescue PartnersThe IRC gratefully acknowledges the support of our Corporate Rescue Partners:

ACE Charitable Foundation American Express Bank of America BBDO Worldwide Blackstone Charitable Foundation Bloomberg Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Cargill CarlsonCIGNA Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton Clifford Chance Coca-Cola Deutsche Bank

eBay GE Foundation General Mills Goldman Sachs Gives Google Hess CorporationInsurance Industry Charitable FoundationJohnson & JohnsonJPMorgan ChaseLexisNexisMarsh & McLennan CompaniesMasterCard WorldwideMerck & Co.Morgan Stanley

OppenheimerFundsPepsiCo, Inc.PfizerPrudentialSalesforce.comSelect EquityTargetThe Capital Group Companies, Inc. Threads for ThoughtTime Warner Inc.Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.Western UnionYum! Brands


New YorkInternational Rescue Committee122 East 42nd StreetNew York, NY 10168-1289USA

Washington, DCInternational Rescue Committee1730 M Street, NWSuite 505Washington, DC 20036USA

LondonInternational Rescue Committee–UK3 Bloomsbury PlaceLondon WC1A 2QLUnited Kingdom

BrusselsInternational Rescue Committee–BelgiumPlace de la VieilleHalle aux Blés 16Oud Korenhuis 161000 BrusselsBelgium

GenevaInternational Rescue Committee7, rue J.-A GautierCH-1201GenevaSwitzerland

BangkokInternational Rescue Committee888/210–212 MahatunPlaza Bldg., 2nd FloorPloenchit RoadLumpini, PathumwanBangkok 10330Thailand

NairobiInternational Rescue CommitteeIKM Place5th Ngong AvenueUpper HillNairobiKenya

How You Can Support the IRCAdvocate Join the IRC’s online global family at Rescue.org to receive important advocacy alerts and news about the humanitarian issues that are important to you.

Donate Give online by visiting our website at Rescue.org Make a tax-deductible contribution by mail to:

Donation, International Rescue Committee 122 East 42nd St. New York, NY 10168-1289

The IRC accepts gifts in the form of securities. For more information, please contact [email protected]

Future GiftsEnsure that displaced people make their way from harm to home in the future through a bequest to the IRC. Contact [email protected] for information or to indicate that you have already included the IRC in your estate plans.

Raise Money Start your own fundraising campaign to support the IRC and make a difference. For information, visit the iRescue DIY fundraising site at diy.rescue.org

Volunteer The IRC relies on volunteers to support its work helping refugees adjust to a new life in the United States. For information about how you can help, contact: Rescue.org/volunteer

Join the conversation

Twitter@theIRC

Facebook.com/@ InternationalRescueCommittee

Pinterest.com/theIRC

Editor: Steven Manning

Contributors: Peter Biro, Rebecca Blum, Gretchen Larsen, Kathleen McCarthy, Dominique Tuohy

Editorial Director: Edward Bligh

Photo Credits All photos by Peter Biro except: P. 7: Ned Colt; P. 9: Bobi Morris; P. 10 left: Rebecca Blum; right: Liz Pender; P. 11: Sinziana Demian; P. 16: The IRC; P. 17 left: AP; top right: Gerry Martone; P. 18-19: Melissa Winkler

Design: www.reddogdesigninc.com

Print: Digital Color Concepts

Paper: This document is printed on Finch Fine which is made using 10% post-consumer waste and produced using 66% on-site sustainable energy sources.

Documents

International Rescue Committee Emergency Response