Taiwan Red Cross Society's Rescue Experience Sharing on Disaster Reduction and Relief

The Taiwan Red Cross’s experience based on past disaster reduction and relief operations is as follows:
(1) To stereotype a disaster event, the impact of a disaster is different in different seasons, different societies, and different political environments. The effect is not the same, so we often say that no two disasters are the same.
(2) It is best to start the operation only after liaising with the relevant department or counterpart organization in the disaster-affected area. Otherwise, the assistance provided will not be unreasonable but will cause confusion.
(c) First, understand that in the disaster-affected areas, disasters will be dealt with by the government.
(d) The government of the affected areas should immediately conduct a rapid demand survey and assessment.
(e) If assistance is needed, the affected area government should inform donors of detailed specifications and quantities as soon as possible.
(vi) Assistance operations should be as complementary as possible to avoid duplication.
(7) Donors should not compete with each other in terms of quantity or speed. Quality and conformity to demand are the most important.
(8) In general, the shortage of foreign medical personnel is really needed, mainly because of problems with language, customs and confidence; however, if language problems can be solved or can be connected, they can still play a role.
(IX) Due to the use of the Internet, there are often considerable benefits in such disasters. Information on humanitarian aid needs to be publicly circulated to provide general supervision and ensure the proper use of materials.
(x) The military usually plays an important role in disasters, especially logistics (ground transportation, communications and air transport), so don't neglect to contact the military.
(11) Do not overreact to media reports, and make a decision after obtaining more detailed information and needs assessment.
(12) It is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster. There are no accidents. All are human.
(xiii) 1×1,000≠1,000×1. Treat 1 patient at a time, treat 1,000 people; do not equal 1,000 patients and treat once.
(14) Disaster prevention and rescue work is most afraid of lack of integration (1) Plan and plan are not integrated (2) There is no coordination between departments and departments. (3) After the disaster or drill, the system is gone.
(15) Frequent problems faced by reconstruction work (1) Conflicts between personal interests and public interests (2) Conflicts between short-term interests and long-term interests. Issues often faced by rehabilitation work (1) Problems with individual households → Xiaoli (2) Preparing for the next disaster → Great interests.
(16) The purpose of the reconstruction should be the concept of disaster prevention. The reconstruction work should ask: (1) Is the method correct? (2) Is it right to spend money? (Sometimes spending money, effects and techniques conflict with big goals).
(17) All anti-disaster relief activities and technologies will only make sense if the communities in dangerous areas know how to respond.
(18) Under normal circumstances, aid agencies should not accept material donations from individuals of good intentions, because the collection, sorting, clean-packaging, and delivery often require a lot of manpower and money, and in the end, because the materials do not meet quarantine imports. Strict requirements, or simply do not meet the actual needs of victims, and other factors, so that the victims did not really benefit.