Last Sunday, a new tool that may revolutionize urgency humanitarian aid was put the finishing touches: a breath detector, able to find people covered with rubble
After a bomb attempt or a natural disaster, the first hours are very crucial to save lives. NGOs, first-aid or relief teams try everything to confront the reality and help the surviving. Most of the time, they lack means to be fully effective, which makes the death toll heavy. This breath detector can identify organic traces that come from missing people when they breathe, sweat or urinate. "Such a device can be used on the field without any laboratory support. It should enable first-aid and humanitarian teams to look for signs coming from living people covered with rubble, at a wide scale and for a long period of time", Professor Paul Thomas, from the British University in Loughborough, who invented this detector, sums up.
The Red Helmets Foundation also contributes to create innovations, in order to strengthen abilities of the teams on the field. Indeed, MISSING.NET, an international search engine for missing people, was launched a few days after the Tsunami in Japan. Emergesat, a satellite container was implemented in Port au Prince, a few hours after the earthquake that stroke Haiti, in order to establish an emergency local communication network.
Yesterday, the 66th General Assembly opened at United Nations Headquarters. On this occasion, internet users were invited to get in touch with Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, via social networks. They were more than 5,000 to ask questions on Facebook, Twitter and Weibo.
In live from New York, the Secretary-General answered a dozen questions, and reasserted UN principles(solidarity, peace-keeping, etc.) « Creating an organization that would be more efficient and effective is our big challenge and our main goal » he added. Questioned via Facebook about the UN involvement in supplying food aid in Somalia, Ban Ki-moon recalled the viewers that the UN, in Somalia or wherever it is needed, plays a fundamental role in supporting the local population, which suffers from natural disasters as floods or droughts.
On Twitter, the Red Helmets Foundation (@casquesrouges) got involved in the event. The three questions asked concerned the creation of a new humanitarian governance headed by the UN :
- Pooling resources is a mandatory condition to improve humanitarian actions’ efficiency. When will we get the Red Helmets?
- Isn’t a fast-reacting UN force essential for a better efficiency of humanitarian associations’ teams?
- More than 375 millions victims from natural disasters foreseen for the single year 2015 (about 250 in 2011). When will we witness the creation of an international humanitarian force, able to react instantly?
The Red Helmets Foundation will follow with deep attention this new General Assembly. We can hope thatleaders from every country in the world shall remember the tsunami and the last earthquakes in Japan or Haiti, in order to take the decisions that should be taken. Only this awareness would enable the creation of a UN international humanitarian force that the Red Helmets Foundation calls for.
25 years after the world wide success of "We are the World", Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones, asked a new generation of artists to sing for Haiti a new version of this song called "We are the World 25 for Haïti".
The Red Helmets Foundation joins the crowd phenomenon by sharing this video with you.
Since 1998, the « Week of Internationale Solidarity» is organized every year.
Most of the time, this operation consists in debates between the professional actors of solidarity (associations, communities, cultural venues, schools) and the public opinion, in order to raise public awareness concerning the need of humanitarian aid.
All the main issues are discussed, from sustainable development to fair trade, from international voluntary service to Human Rights. All those debates take place within various animations.
This year, the " Week of International Solidarity " will take place from 14 till 22 November and will concern essentially the issue of climate change. A single watchword: "Do not negotiate with climate: act!".
A few weeks only before the summit of Copenhagen, this week was the ideal opportunity to remind the leaders of the whole world the importance of an agreement. Throughout the week, all the climatic changes oriented subjects will be approached: greenhouse gas, protection of environment and population and of course concrete solutions.
In this context, the Red Helmet Foundation considered naturally important to inform students of increasing number of natural disasters resulting from the climate change.
We were present on Tuesday, November 16th, io the ISG campus, to communicate our urgent message concerning the necessity of rethinking the humanitarian aid and of creating an international humanitarian strength of fast reaction to face the environmental turnovers.
