Subscribe to RSSWhat is the FACT Team?
It’s the most important job you’ve never heard of.
The Red Cross FACT team arrives in-country during the emergency phase of a response operation. Their humanitarian assessment work allows ground operations to begin while mobilizing the Red Cross’s longer-term human resource support through Emergency Response Units.
FACT members come from 70 different countries and have expertise in relief, logistics, health, nutrition, public health and epidemiology, water and sanitation, finance, administration, psychological support, as well as language capabilities.
The FACT team works alongside and oversees the Red Cross Emergency Response Units (ERUs). ERUs were created to fill the gaps created by an emergency as a result of temporary overload of existing systems.
ERUs provide essential services in nine different types of specialized units: they provide health, water and sanitation services, and support major disaster operations with logistics, IT and telecommunications and relief. The units are self-sufficient for one month and can stay up to four months in the country.
The “Inside Disaster” documentary series will follow the Red Cross FACT and ERU deployments to the next major natural disaster. In the series and on this website, you’ll meet FACT and ERU members like the ones featured in the Inside Disaster documentary trailer.
How and when are the FACT and ERUs deployed?
When the affected country requests assistance from the International Federation of the Red Cross, the Secretariat alerts FACT members all over the world through SMS, requesting their availability within 12 – 24 hours.
Within 48 hours, the team arrives on the ground. Working with their in-country counterparts, they compile an assessment report and plan of action, recommending the most appropriate Red Cross/Red Crescent intervention. Working with the Red Cross Emergency Response Units, the FACT Team coordinates the roll-out of health, water and sanitation services to the affected populations.
The Inside Disaster documentary crew will follow the FACT team throughout their mission, and document the recovery process in the months to follow. Web producer Nico Jolliet will be taking photos, blogging and shooting mini-documentaries from the field throughout the initial deployment, and you’ll be able to find all his content on the Inside Disaster website.
You can read more about the Red Cross Field Assessment and Coordination Teams and the Emergency Response Units on the IFRC’s website.
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