Emergency Response

Emergency Relief

Emergency relief is the immediate response to disaster.  It includes supplying essential items such as food, water, blankets, and clothing; providing temporary shelter to those who have lost their homes; and first aid and medicine. 

The duration of the relief phase is dependent on both the scale of the disaster, and the resources of the country in question.  Relief officially ends when the government of the country in question declares it over.    As this phase approaches an end, the incoming donations and resources usually decrease, yet the rebuilding of lives and communities is only just beginning.

Recovery

Recovery is the lengthy process that follows emergency relief and it can take from five to ten years.  It involves repatriation, reconstructing permanent homes & infrastructure, and enabling income-generating activities so that communities can once again operate independently.

During recovery, people displaced by a disaster are assisted in returning to their homes. At every stage of emergency management, protection is required for those at risk, and during the repatriation process, women and children can be particularly vulnerable.

As people begin to return home, healthcare facilities, schools and water supplies need to be rebuilt. New jobs are created, and micro-credit loans provided so that individuals can establish or re-establish their own businesses.

While emergency relief is essentially providing people with whatever they need to survive, recovery means enabling them to get back on their own two feet.  Most people are eager to become self-sufficient – to feel confident that once the aid workers leave, they will have a viable and secure future.

Austcare’s Response

In recent years, Austcare has responded to the crisis in Sudan and the tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia during 2004; the Java earthquake and conflict in East Timor in May 2006; and the conflict in Lebanon in July 2006.

Austcare works with partner organisations to respond immediately and to maximise the effectiveness of our response when disasters strike.   

Austcare’s approach to relief and recovery aims to not only restore pre-disaster living conditions, but to actually improve them. People affected by the disaster are involved in all stages of recovery to ensure independence, self-sufficiency and sustainability.