Case Studies
Disaster Preparedness through Virtual Reality
The Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross Society
The intensity of the natural phenomena in the Caribbean has increased in recent years. For example, since 2017, three category five hurricanes (Irma, María, and Dorian) have caused considerable damage to all the islands in the region. These experiences and various recent studies reaffirm the importance and need to work with communities in raising awareness and developing capacities to prepare for and respond to disasters.
Innovating to identify the most effective social change mechanisms to engage Roma communities
Romanian Red Cross
In Romania, a large proportion of the Roma population faces structural vulnerabilities characterized by the complex and continuous ethnic and intergenerational dimension of poverty. The Roma often live in marginalised, economically and socially vulnerable communities, and this has led to social isolation, causing additional difficulties, especially for Roma children in school. According to the Romanian census conducted in 2011, 621,573 Romanians (about 3% of the population) belong to the Roma ethnic group although the 2010 Council of Europe data mentions a Romanian Roma population ranging between 1,200,000 and 2,500,000 people.
Support for women’s health and autonomy
Red Cross of Benin
Red Cross of Benin has increasingly explored new and innovative approaches to try and tackle highly complex social and development issues facing people in the country. One particular challenge that they have turned to new approaches for is the significant lack of health information available for women and girls in Benin and the struggles they face in achieving some measure of financial independence. Red Cross of Benin already supports a large number of women’s and mothers’ groups with first aid and other activities, but they wanted to try a new approach to address some of the systemic challenges facing the women. With the support of the Empress Shôken Fund, which is notably helping National Societies experiment with innovative approaches, they have begun to explore how to develop social and micro-entrepreneurship approaches with women’s groups.