The adage “to fail to plan is to plan to fail” is one that would be aptly accepted and confirmed by the Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies. Late last week, a Red Cross representative from the Turks & Caicos Islands was in Anguilla as part of a planning program for any potential disaster, especially in light of the fact that our vulnerable islands are now at the mercy of the dreaded hurricane season.
The visiting representative was in the person of Ms. Candiann Williams , who conducted two workshops last Thursday and Friday, July 18th and 19th at the Guishard’s Technical Centre Conference Room. Her focus was on training local participating Red Cross personnel on how to reconnect family members — both locally and overseas — in the event of a catastrophic disaster.
This critical aspect of disaster aftermath is called, in Red Cross terms, “Restoring Family Link” (RFL). It enables qualified Red Cross workers to utilize communication devices via satellite phone or other portable units that allow those who wish to inform their relatives about their status to easily do so.
The program is under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. It involves activities that aim to prevent separation and disappearance, looking for missing persons, restore and maintain contact between family members and clarify the fate of persons reported missing.
The ICRC and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies form a global network, the Family Links Network. This works across international borders with staff and volunteers at grass-roots level worldwide, to locate people and put them back into contact with their relatives.
Ms. Williams said: “What we are doing now is to make sure that all the susceptible islands have the capacity to contact relatives overseas in case of any emergency. Coming out of the experience with Hurricane Irma, we have learnt that persons had to wait a very long time before their loved ones could learn about how they survived the storm. So we want to be really better prepared of any future eventuality. Turks & Caicos is another British Overseas Territory, and so we are guided by the British Red Cross, and Restoring Family Links is an essential part of our agenda.
“RFL has three main components. The first is to prepare families to avoid separation. Secondly, if loved ones are per chance separated, we want to make sure that we can re-connect them. Thirdly, we want to confirm the fate of the missing. It could turn out to be good or bad, but we need to be able to verify what the situation is in the event that persons are indeed missing.”
Ms. Williams’ prime objective during the workshop sessions was to properly train local Red Cross workers on how to deal with the task of re-connecting families in times of disaster. She noted that one of the main characteristics necessary to accomplish such a task, on the part of the Red Cross worker, was that there needs to be a calm but assertive demeanor in dealing with the frenzy and commotion that would characterize scenes of disaster.
Those who attended the workshop sessions claimed that they benefitted much from the valuable training.
– Staff Reporter, James R. Harrigan
