Humanitarian disaster assistance

Humanitarian assistance - People's Health Movement (PHM)

The members of the People's Health Movement (PHM) have been actively involved in providing humanitarian assistance in various countries across the world. Their experience and reflections provide relevant insights on the demands of health in humanitarian emergencies. The tunami (2004/2005) which caused one of the biggest human tragedies in Southern Asia and in a few parts of Africa was one of them. PHM documents relating to the tsunami response are included below:

• Responding to the Tsunami crisis - A people's Health Movement Statement (January 21, 2005) [.pdf]
• Humanitarian aid to community empowerment: Challenges and Post-Tsunami disaster Strategies (CHC) [.pdf]

- Dr. David McCoy's keynote at the 13th Berlin Humanitarian Congress, Oct 28th 2011:

.... humanitarianism (placed) within a political and global economic context ......... this is a humanitarianism that goes beyond the relief of human suffering to include the prevention of human suffering. ........... there is no political, managerial or technological blueprint for addressing the problems we face. But there are, I think, a few signposts – so that even if we don’t have a detailed map, we can push forward in the right direction. What might these signposts say? I think there are three over‐arching signposts.... read more