WJR KeySupporter Summer 2025-v3.3 - Flipbook - Page 8
REBUILDING LIVES
Responding to
emergencies
–By Stacey Swimer, Director of International
Programmes and Partnerships
As one of my team once put it: No can be the hardest
word in the dictionary. For many of us, we have to say
it every day of our lives. To friends, to family and to our
children. Even when we desperately want to be able to
say yes.
And in my line of work, you have to say it a lot. Even
when it breaks your heart to say no. This feels even more
di昀케cult today, with signi昀椀cantly reduced global aid
budgets and reduced resources for crisis hit communities.
But as the Jewish community’s humanitarian agency, I
am thankful that we can say yes as often as we do. Over
the last decade, we have responded to 49 disasters in 26
countries.
When big disasters strike – such as earthquakes, 昀氀oods
or con昀氀ict – news starts to trickle in. It often takes a while
before the true extent of the damage is known. How
many lives have been lost – how many more will be lost if
nothing is done…
It’s in these 昀椀rst few hours that our Emergency Taskforce
convenes to assess the situation, and decide our next
steps. Of course, we have a stringent criteria – aligning
with UN agencies and the Disasters Emergency
Committee’s set of criteria – helping us to make our
decisions and take action.
08 | worldjewishrelief.org
But as the Jewish community’s
humanitarian agency, I am thankful
that we can say yes as often as we
do. Over the last decade, we have
responded to 49 disasters in
26 countries.
This includes:
1. Is there an overwhelming scale of unmet humanitarian
need?
2. Has the host government requested international
assistance?
3. Do we have an existing partner or potential partner
in the country, that is able and willing to utilise our
resources to respond?
4. Would our response reduce the scale of unmet
humanitarian need?
5. Is the crisis hitting headline news, and generating lots
of awareness amongst our supporters?
If the disaster meets the criteria above, World Jewish
Relief looks to respond. If we launch an emergency
appeal, we turn to our generous supporters, who have a
big say in how many people we can reach with life-saving
assistance. A recent example of this was our emergency
appeal following earthquakes in Myanmar at the end
of March 2025. Here is a step-by-step account from the
moment the earthquake struck to launching our response.
