Summary: CHF 167,769 was allocated from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) on 15 January 2013 to support the National Society in delivering assistance to some 2,253 beneficiaries in four locations/districts affected by the fire disaster.
The initial objective of Sierra Leone Red Cross Society (SLRCS) intervention was to support the impoverished fire disaster victims in Bo, Pujehun, Bonthe and Moyamba districts who were left languishing in neighbouring villages as a result of the disaster.
The lives of 2,253 people affected by the fire were changed when impacted with relief assistance from the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society with support from the IFRC after a fire disaster displaced them early this year. Change in the lives of these disaster affected people was realized and their dignity restored when 450 families were supported with NFIs and 279 houses rehabilitated. Since the Red Cross was the first humanitarian organization to respond to the emergency, a clear display of our roles and responsibility to the general public was realized and appreciated by the Government of Sierra Leone whose line institution responsible for disaster management later joined the efforts of the Red Cross.
This response operation provided an enabling environment for the SLRCS to effectively coordinate with the central government, the local government in the four districts and other agencies and stakeholders.
The major donors and partners of DREF include the Australian, American and Belgian governments, the Austrian Red Cross, the Canadian Red Cross and government, Danish Red Cross and government, DG ECHO, the Irish and the Italian governments, the Japanese Red Cross Society, the Luxembourg government, the Monaco Red Cross and government, the Netherlands Red Cross and government, the Norwegian Red Cross and government, the Spanish Government, the Swedish Red Cross and government, the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), the Medtronic and Z Zurich Foundations, and other corporate and private donors.