We walk along corridors past men, women and children sleeping on the floor. The storm has blown the roof away from the buildings in the school complex, there are cracks on the walls. One young man steps in to one partly damaged building as people wait anxiously outside. In

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We can’t stop storms or earthquakes. But we can stop disasters turning into crises. In the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, here is a list of five key things to remember during the relief and recovery effort in Haiti. Port Au Prince, 9 October 2016 The storm was just

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In wars and disaster zones, a simple explanation is that humanity is a force that advances the idea of life, with dignity. To strengthen the idea of humanity for people caught in conflicts, epidemics and disasters, we could borrow some ideas from the Olympic motto: Citius

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In these desperate times, the world needs to do more, generating a sense of hope, security and protection – especially for young children, travelling without parents and leaving everything they know behind. “We know where we’re going… We know where

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Japanese boat man gives a crash course in disaster management. Standing on the bridge of the Himawari (sunflower), the boat Susumu Sugawara, 72, sailed for over 40 years, he recalls how he braved the 20-metre-high tsunami waves. “I was not sure whether I was

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I ask a group of children what they want to be when they grow up. Half raise their hands to be teachers, the rest want to be doctors and engineers. These children are the future. Despite all the challenges, all my visits to the Middle East have been inspiring. As the

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On 22 May (2015), a 4.2 magnitude earthquake was recorded in Sandwich, Kent, UK. It struck almost a month after the damaging 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the Kathmandu valley in Nepal. Now, I live in London, but in the immediate aftermath of the Nepal earthquake, I was

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Immediately after a disaster, life-saving aid floods into a country. Yet, while humanitarian workers are adept at dealing with the physical needs, they can miss the invisible needs of disaster survivors – such as mental health and psychosocial support, especially for

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Speed is an important factor for any successful emergency response: Next time, to outsmart the virus, we need to act fast through quick deployment of equipment, specialists and field hospitals. Speed will play a critical role in writing a different story for the first

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By Asako Osaki, Unni Krishnan As dozens of nations and world leaders gathered in Sendai, Japan, for the third U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, Cyclone Pam hit the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, leaving catastrophic damage. The storm, one of

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