El Niño sweeps southern Africa

As El Niño-related drought conditions swept across southern Africa, some 49 million people will likely be struggling to get adequate food by the end of the year, according to the IFRC. Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe all declared states of emergency, as have seven of South Africa’s nine provinces. Mozambique declared a ‘red alert’ in its central and southern provinces. In response, the IFRC has announced a US$ 110 million, four-year initiative to support the response of National Red Cross Societies in drought-affected countries in southern Africa. In addition to relief efforts, including emergency distributions of cash, the initiative will help at-risk communities expand traditional livelihoods. In one project, the Malawi Red Cross Society provides families with goats to breed and sell for income. The families then return some livestock to help other families.

Related

What happens when machines can decide who to kill?

It’s the stuff of science fiction: machines that make decisions about who and when to kill. Referred to as “autonomous weapons”, they’re already in use to some degree. But as more sophisticated systems are being developed we wanted to an expert in the field about whether such systems comply with international humanitarian law and what it means for humanity to give machines the power over human life and death.

‘Wildfire diaries’ and radical change in communications

In this episode, we talk with humanitarian communicator Kathy Mueller who produced our first magazine podcast series, The Wildfire Diaries, about massive wildfires in Northern Canada in 2017. We talk about that series, her many international missions, and the big changes in humanitarian communications since she began with the Canadian Red Cross almost 20 years ago.

The power of storytelling

In this episode, we talk about the power of storytelling to inform and inspire. “Storytelling is a fundamental aspect of human communication,” says our guest Prodip, a volunteer and multi-media storyteller for the Bangladesh Red Crescent. “It inspires us to be a hero of our own community.” We also speak with one such community hero, Dalal al-Taji, a longtime volunteer and advocate for inclusion of people with disabilities in emergencies response. “In disasters. persons with disabilities sometimes get forgotten.”

This post is also available in:

Discover more stories

Get stories worth sharing delivered to your inbox

Want to stay up to date?

This might interest you...

Ugandan youth put eco-friendly future ‘in the bag’

Community Innovators with the Uganda Red Cross hope to make a big difference in young peoples’ lives with small, green enterprises

Check it out