Blog posts about Emergency Response

Helping Rohingya children get their childhoods back

About half a million children are living in refugee camps in Bangladesh. We're working together to help them.

After Ebola. Sierra Leone’s abandoned treatment centres

The abandoned Ebola Treatment Centre at Makeni was one of a handful of centres in Sierra Leone built to contain and treat the deadly Ebola disease. Now it's a skeleton site left to ruin, containing nothing but discarded rubbish and echoes of the plague it was built to fight.

volunteer Arnoud Keizer teaches Anita Ayuban how to use a GPS mapping device

Making maps that save lives: Arnoud Keizer in the Philippines

In November 2013 Typhoon Haiyan tore a path of destruction through the Philippines affecting over 14 million people. Volunteer Arnoud Keizer has spent nine months supporting national efforts to use science and technology to prepare for and prevent future devastation.

VSO volunteer Jessica Stanford in Nepal after the earthquake

What comes after an earthquake

Surviving a natural disaster was not what Jessica Stanford, 34, expected when she began her volunteer placement as a business development adviser in 2014. Instead, she found her calling coordinating humanitarian effort in the wake of Nepal's worst earthquake in 80 years.

Rebuild Nepal: The difference you've made

How the donations of thousands of supporters of our Nepal Appeal are helping rebuild the country.

Jennifer Kamara, who survived capture by the rebels during Sierra Leone's long civil war and then went blind, finds solace in her family life. Her grandmother (r), Sama Mansaray, tells a joke provoking a cackle from Jennifer outside their house in Binkolo

What next for Sierra Leone?

Throughout the Ebola outbreak, people wary of health centres stopped accessing the services on offer with tragic consequences – including a 30% increase in maternal deaths and a 24% increase in newborn deaths.

Bhaktapur, Nepal, after the 2015 Earthquake

Helping rebuild the Nepalese education system

Following the recent earthquakes, volunteer Daphne decided to stay in Nepal and continue her important work.

How you helped Sierra Leone’s people face the fear of Ebola

Thanks to our strong partnership with the Ministry, and an emergency appeal that to date has raised over £200,000, we have been able to continue vital work throughout the outbreak, helping as many mothers-to-be as possible to have their babies safely in the midst of the crisis.