Purpose

This video is one of five documentaries created to illustrate best practice in building community and Red Cross and Red Crescent capacity in a variety of cultural contexts in Mongolia, Australia, Nepal and Cambodia.

Overview

• The capacity-building process involves communities identifying their needs, volunteers offering their time, staff coordinating resources, and domestic and international partners providing support where necessary. It ultimately helps the vulnerable better manage their lives, reduce the risks they face and improve their long-term health, well-being and livelihoods.
• In Mongolia the Red Cross strives to ensure that the voices of groups such as the elderly, disabled and women-headed households, which will usually not be heard, are included in planning and branch activities.
• In Nepal, involvement with Red Cross programmes have improved the lives of Nepalese women, especially in terms of challenges faced by them in the community, which limit their participation in discussions about decisions affecting them.
• Many Cambodians have experienced social isolation, exclusion or discrimination in different forms as victims of the AIDS virus, war or sexual assault. The Red Cross empowers such people as volunteers to achieve new and appreciated roles in their communities.
• In Australia, the Red Cross has increased its attention to the needs of groups who have been marginalised socially, economically and culturally.

Usage: Training; Guidance for project implementation

Audiences: Volunteers, youth, technical staff