A chaotic start to recovery in the Bahamas
On the 1st of September 2019, the Category 5 hurricane Dorian hit the Abaco islands in the northern Bahamas, with over 24 hours of extremely high sustained winds, with maximum strengths of 185 miles per hour. The effects of Dorian were compounded by the storm stalling over the islands, increasing the duration of the storm damage. […]
Ebola: a tale of two outbreaks
The two most severe outbreaks of Ebola virus disease (EVD) have occurred within the last five years, in Libera, Sierra Leone and Guinea between 2014 and 2016, and the current outbreak raging in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The outbreaks share some close similarities, but also stark differences in how containment, treatment and […]
Social medicine – Ebola in minds and the media
Ask a member of the public what they know about Ebola and they may describe the disease from what they’ve seen from film, TV and books. They may also recall hearing about the 2014-16 West Africa outbreak, and especially for members of the US public, the case of Thomas Eric Duncan who died in Texas […]
Conflict in the DRC – A Challenge to Effective Aid Delivery
Owing to the tropical nature of disease such as Ebola, developing nations and groups suffering from economic hardships are disproportionately affected. Additionally, countries with histories of Ebola outbreaks such as the DRC, Guinea and Sierra Leone have deep and varied cultural and political backgrounds. Colonial rule imposed upon many African nations and regions by Europeans […]
Gaining Long-Term Community Trust – Learning from Multiple Fields
Malaria is the disease caused by the single celled parasites of the Plasmodium genus, with five species causing illness in humans, the severest caused by P. falciparum. The parasites are spread through mosquito bites, primarily carried by mosquitos in the Culex and Anopheles genera. Together, these two genera of mosquito capable of carrying the malaria parasite are distributed globally in all but […]
How Technology is Shaping Community Engagement in Humanitarian Aid
The way humanitarians interact with the communities in which they work has changed drastically as the information age has taken hold. Reaching out to people in need was historically a very personal thing, and necessarily so, but was also one of the only means of understanding the needs and wishes of communities. The use of […]
Community-Led Aid Response – The Humanitarian Programme Cycle
It is becoming increasingly clear that effective implementation of humanitarian aid requires, first and foremost, trust of the communities in which they work. Whilst there remains considerable value in the distribution of needed resources (e.g. food, water and medicine), the evolving needs of people in crisis means that proper communication is essential. The Global Humanitarian Overview, […]
