Community members given opportunity to help in disaster zones

World Jewish Relief is launching an international Disaster Response Team to enable experienced members of the Jewish community with the necessary specialist skills to respond directly when international disaster strikes.

The UK Jewish community’s humanitarian agency is expanding its international response capabilities by creating a roster of skilled volunteers from within the community who can be deployed at short notice. They will support relief and recovery activities when an international disaster strikes.

The organisation is expanding its humanitarian reach by recruiting a group of volunteers with specialist skills who will join its operations just after an international disaster has struck.

When an international disaster occurs, World Jewish Relief’s humanitarian team arrives in disaster-hit countries within days to carry out a needs assessment and select local partners to work with. The new Disaster Response Team will bolster the organisation’s presence and capacity in this demanding context.

The volunteers will utilise their skills in the local context, as well as supporting World Jewish Relief’s professional team on the ground to identify local partner agencies and ensure that the agency’s response directly meets the humanitarian need.

The organisation is seeking people with significant demonstrable international experience that includes any of the following: Humanitarian response leadership, needs assessments, food distributions and cash-based responses, water and sanitation, logistics, gender specialism, emergency provision of temporary shelter and agriculture or livelihood development. Previous international humanitarian and development experience would be a significant advantage. Volunteers who are in employment would need to be able to negotiate time off from their employer at short notice for a 7-21 day deployment. World Jewish Relief will provide relevant training and support to all successful applicants.

Paul Anticoni, World Jewish Relief’s Chief Executive, said: “In the aftermath of any international catastrophe, responding in a timely and skilled way is essential to save lives and reduce suffering. World Jewish Relief needs additional expertise which we know exists within our Community to assist us in this critical endeavour.”

“This team of committed volunteers will enable us to rapidly scale up our humanitarian response and in the midst of disaster ensure a high quality, effective and targeted response to save lives and livelihoods. This is a brilliant opportunity for the right people to play their part in our front line emergency response work fulfilling the Jewish imperative of Tikkun Olam – fixing the world.”