The first 72 hours after a disaster strikes are when the most lives can be saved and life-threatening disease can most effectively be contained.

Preparing communities in advance on how best to respond when the worst happens, offers the most effective, and efficient means to help people. For every £1 spent on training and preparedness before a disaster strikes as much as £7 is saved in the aftermath of the event.

International Medical Corps helps to prepare communities through training programmes for local staff so they can respond better to future disasters. Working with communities, we develop emergency systems that cover the spectrum from household to national-level in order to reduce the impact of future disasters and, in the long-term, possibly prevent them.

Every local health worker, community volunteer, and ministry of health civil servant trained by International Medical Corps represents a key building block in a county’s defence mechanism against disasters and suffering. This is why we often stay in countries long after the immediate crisis has passed, supporting communities and building capacity so that the next disaster will not be devastating. In Ethiopia for example, we have seen numerous droughts and food crises cause terrible suffering in the regions where we work. However, each time the skills and expertise that we have brought to health care workers and local communities reduces the impact of each successive crisis.

International Medical Corps is widely recognised as a pre-eminent disaster response organisation with a global reach. Such work depends on trained, experienced personnel, and we maintain an active roster of experts with skills in emergency response operations.