Getting financing for aid measures and ensuring that they’re implemented quickly and that they’re appropriate – these are our greatest “technical” challenges. The Red Cross / Red Crescent movement is represented in 185 countries around the world by national organizations like the German Red Cross. These organizations have trained aid workers in individual regions who can be deployed at once. If a disaster occurs in a country in which the local organization lacks sufficient resources of its own, the situation is immediately assessed by so-called FACT teams (Field Assessment and Coordination Teams) comprising a wide range of specialists. Operating from Red Cross headquarters in Geneva, the worldwide movement then mobilizes assistance as needed.

Well, for example, when the tsunami struck Indonesia a few years ago, the first thing we did was mobilize the volunteers at the Indonesian Red Cross. Additional requirements – specialized technologies like water treatment systems and the experts to operate them – are supplied by Red Cross organizations in the prosperous industrial countries. They are then transported to disaster areas as soon as they’re needed. The German Red Cross keeps a supply of rapid-deployment modules – so-called Emergency Response Units (ERUs) – for water treatment and healthcare in its warehouse at Berlin’s Schönefeld Airport. There are some 400 specialists in Germany who can be deployed at any time. Other Red Cross organizations handle communications, logistics and other specialized tasks. This international division of labor guarantees that we get the right things to the right places quickly and efficiently. At the same time, the national Red Cross / Red Crescent organizations around the world are responsible for financing operations with donations collected from the general public in their home countries.

The first thing that companies can do is to acknowledge that they have a responsibility to society and anchor the corresponding mindset throughout their organizations – as Siemens has done with its Caring Hands program. Then there are a variety of possibilities: Since companies have greater financial leeway than private individuals, donations from the business community can be very helpful at certain points. Many companies produce goods that are useful in disaster relief operations or have employees with useful specialist know-how.

To ensure that both sides understand each other, companies have to respect the judgment of aid organizations when it comes to deciding what is really needed in particular cases. Companies have to realize, for example, that it’s not just orphans that need help, that not every important project will generate positive publicity and that high-value donations in kind are sometimes too expensive to transport to target regions. For their part, aid organizations have to appreciate that even flourishing companies cannot make contributions everywhere all the time.

It’s helpful if companies expand their know-how and processes in the area of corporate social responsibility and if they appoint contacts – as Caring Hands has done – who can work closely and effectively with aid organizations and bring about internal decisions. And, the other way around, aid organizations should set up interfaces to the business community.