About RedR
Survival after disasters depends on addressing the most basic needs - shelter, water, sanitation, food & health - quickly and efficiently. This is where RedR is vital.
RedR recruits and maintains a register of highly skilled individuals with suitable qualifications and aptitudes to work in disaster relief. While engineering and related technical skills lie at the heart of RedR, the range of professions represented on the register continues to grow. At present the register includes those with experience in engineering, logistics, environmental health, management, finance and needs assessment.
When disaster strikes, humanitarian agencies call on RedR to provide front-line personnel. RedR responds to these requests quickly and efficiently, using the register to select the appropriate person for the job.
Since its establishment in 1979, RedR members have undertaken over 900 assignments with more than 80 agencies. They have worked in over 70 countries including Burundi, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Macedonia.
To broaden the range and depth of relief worker' skills, RedR has developed an extensive training programme and runs courses throughout the world. These cover both 'soft' subjects (personal effectiveness, community mobilisation, managing people etc.) and 'hard' technical subjects (water supply, power generation etc.) RedR also runs a programme of security workshops in disaster affected countries. All courses are planned in collaboration with relief agencies and are acknowledged to be among the best in the humanitarian sector.
In addition to this, RedR is committed to advocacy within the humanitarian relief sector and has been instrumental in a number of key initiatives including the publication of "Engineering in Emergencies - A Practical Guide for Relief Workers". It was also a founder member of the People in Aid Project which produced the Code of Best Practice in the Management and Support of Aid Personnel. RedR also works in a modest way to bring humanitarian relief issues to the attention of the public through workshops, seminars and the RedR Forum.
Our history
In 1979, Peter Guthrie was seconded by his employer, Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick, to work as an engineer in the Vietnamese refugee camps in Malaysia. At the end of his assignment, Peter saw all too clearly that while engineers had an important role to play in reducing the human suffering in emergencies, front-line agencies faced great difficulties in identifying and recruiting such staff.
Back in England, Peter searched for a solution and after discussions with friends and colleagues, founded "Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief" abbreviated first to REDR - Engineers for Disaster Relief and subsequently known simply as RedR.
The original concept of RedR was to create a register of carefully selected engineers who could be called on at short notice to work for up to 3 months with front-line relief agencies on secondment from their regular employer. This concept remains at the heart of RedR to this day, although the range of professional skills represented on the register has grown considerably.
The first RedR office was established in England. Based on the success of this first RedR, offices have also been established in Australia (1992) and New Zealand (1994). New initiatives in India, East Africa and Canada are currently under discussion. RedR's International Secretariat is now based in Brussels having been initially set up in Geneva in 1996.