Mesures prises:
In the period from 2016 to 2019 the Croatian Red Cross has carried out numerous activities contributing to the fulfilment of the pledge action plan. They are concentrated into the following groups:
The first group of activities is related to the direct and indirect building of Croatian Red Cross local branches’ capacity in order to enable them to increase their resilience and withstand shocks. Taking into account previous experiences from the 2014 floods and 2015-2016 migrant wave, systematic upgrades have been made in the Croatian Red Cross preparedness programme. New regulatory documents were adopted, roles and obligations of different CRC organisational levels were better defined along with the structural organisation improving. The role of local branches in recruitment and management of volunteers, as well as basic trainings was underlined. Training of volunteers’ coordinators for local branches and continual support for them has been made available in the NS. New training standards for basic CRC units were established and put into practice. Different levels of trainings were continuously held by the NS in all preparedness activities and related areas (Restoring family links, First aid, Water safety, Psychosocial support, Disaster preparedness). Apart from Croatian Red Cross national and local staff and volunteers, Red Cross of Montenegro, Red Cross of Bosnia and Herzegovina staff and volunteers, as well as Croatian police staff participated in the trainings. About 350 participants were trained as trainers. They were later actively involved in First aid, Restoring Family links, Psychosocial support and other DP related trainings at all organisational levels. A considerable number of items were donated to regional branches. 21 of them received more than 5000 individual items (tents, blankets, sleeping bags, tables, kitchen sets, hygiene and first aid sets).
The second group of activities is aimed at reducing vulnerability and building resilience of local communities through different projects and initiatives often in partnerships and coalitions with different national and international stakeholders.
Intensive cooperation was established with the Civil protection directorate, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Zagreb – Department of Psychology, Psychological Assistance Society of Zagreb, and the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Politics on the development of a systematic approach to implementing PSS in emergencies in Croatia. As a result, the handbook „Psychosocial support in big scale emergencies“ was issued.
The Croatian Red Cross is co-lead to the Ministry for Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy in fulfilment of the National programme for voluntary work development goals. Cooperation with the Teacher Training Agency was established through introducing the interdisciplinary curriculum of civil education, the result being prevention and preparedness themes incorporated into the regular education programme for primary and secondary schools. More than 400 teachers have so far been included into seminars – the final result was the increased interest in active participation and volunteering in Red Cross and other voluntary organisations. Cooperation with the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Teacher Education as well as Scout Association in Zagreb was established on students’ volunteering in Red Cross programmes, and the partnership with the Ministry of demography, family, youth and social politics on development of standards of selection and training of volunteers for emergency response.
The „Education for humanity“ programme was developed, also in cooperation with the Teacher Training Agency, and it is continuously being implemented through seminars for kindergarten teachers and other experts. About 600 kindergarten teachers have so far been trained to implement it. The Erasmus+ project „Safer schools and kindergartens“ was implemented in partnership with four other NSs in the region, and was aimed to improve knowledge and competencies of kindergarten and elementary school children regarding safety and dealing with emergencies. The handbook „Education for humanity“ which contains topics on disaster risk reduction for kindergarten teachers, volunteers, parents and other experts was published after a positive opinion by the Teacher Training Agency and approval by the Ministry of Education.
As a part of the Ministry of Health’s work group for heat wave impact mitigation, the CRC issued educative fans, caps and posters annually and delivered them to local branches to be distributed to the public. The „Set2GO“, a backpack containing either a personal or family set of necessities for emergencies was designed and workshops for local trainers were held.
Interdisciplinary educational and informational field trips, tours and workshops for students and civilians alike in the CRC Headquarter’s Education Center began in 2018. Field trip workshops include: “Caution! Danger!” – the prevention of human trafficking; “How to say no” – peer pressure and exercising communication and life skills; “A step forward” – stereotypes, bias and social inclusion; “Informed and ready together” – Emergency situation preparedness; “Parlance” – Development of democratic culture and accepting diversity and finally, “First Aid saves lives” – First Aid. Only in the first year of existence 2,870 visitors were included into named activities.
In partnership with other NSs from the region, two projects were implemented: The ReCheck project was aimed to development of an interactive approach to urban groups and neighbourhoods in order to increase their preparedness for emergencies. The PFA-CE project was implemented and aimed to strengthen the capacities of organizations included in emergency response in PSS and PFA, as well as increasing the active participation of the community in response.
The CRC Safety Sign project was launched nationally with the aim of strengthening capacities of tourist facilities to answer to emergencies. TheWater safety project internal call for proposals was annually issued. It is aimed at local branches’ small projects dedicated to prevention of accidents on the water. Through this Call roughly 40 projects were financed and about 18 500 children and teachers were reached by them annually.
The last group of activities is connected to the international cooperation of South East European (SEE) National Societies and the establishment of the Neighbours Help First initiative focused on joint and systematic approach to disaster preparedness and response. The SEE National Societies share in many ways common background and face similar challenges and over the last years there has been a strong regional cooperation in many areas especially in connection with various emergencies. The SEE National Societies committed to strengthening cooperation by using best practice from IFRC and ICRC and National Societies particularly in the area of disaster and crisis preparedness and response activities. The initiative was first discussed during the first Leadership meeting in Zagreb in 2017, and in the same year joint project proposal was prepared and submitted in partnership of 7 NS and the IFRC Regional Office Budapest.
The agreement was officially signed in 2018 and NHF workshop on NS resources for response database were held. In 2019 addendums were adopted and new members and observers joined, so current members are the Albanian Red Cross, Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgarian Red Cross, Croatian Red Cross, Hungarian Red Cross, Red Cross of the Republic of North Macedonia, Red Cross of Montenegro, Romanian Red Cross, Red Cross of Serbia, Slovenian Red Cross, Cyprus Red Cross, Polish Red Cross and Turkish Red Crescent. Observer societies are the Austrian Red Cross, Czech Red Cross, Italian Red Cross, Slovak Red Cross, and the IFRC & ICRC – both with a position of a technical advisor to the NHF Network. TOR for NHF Secretariat were discussed. A new biannual plan of action was adopted.
Considerable steps have been taken by the Croatian Red Cross towards creating its contribution to Virtual warehouse database. The Croatian Red Cross hosted a training session on Restoring Family Links – there was also a study visit of the representatives from the Red Cross Society of Bosnia Herzegovina to Croatian Red Cross Tracing Service. In addition, a training session on media relations and communications led by the Croatian Red Cross spokesperson was held in Bosnia Herzegovina for the RC Society of B&H. Advisors from PSS and DM department have been sent to RC Society of B&H to help train local staff and volunteers.
