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If someone wants to do something like this, I hear the Red Cross has pools of technical experts for emergency response situations. Does anyone have experience a

If someone wants to do something like this, I hear the Red Cross has pools of technical experts for emergency response situations. Does anyone have experience about that?

BiteCode_dev 3y ago
It's the case for many NGO. Just know that: - NGOs won't pay nearly as much as the private sector, obviously. - It's very hard to get in, at least for deployed missions. So do not hesitate to try again and again for a long time. - Once you are in, it ripples, and you easily get access to many other missions, provided you did a good job. It can be useful to accept something completely out of your main thing, just to get the foot in the door. - A lot of NGO work is actually not helping anybody. Be prepared to be disappointed. Some is good, but the amount of PR, virtue signaling and scams is staggering. Although many people are under the delusion they save the world. Do it for the experience, and maybe you'll get lucky and you'll do more good that bad, on average. Some days, I'm still unsure I did. But emergency responses are where the most unambiguous good is done. - If you do it for long enough, you will get hurt. That's just how it is. Sick, wounded, bankrupt... Something. That's one of the prices to pay. E.G: in West Africa, our first Malaria was kinda a rite of passage. We'd joke about it. You can't take pills with side effects for ever. - You'll need to be pretty autonomous. Nobody is going to take you by the hand. But the cool part of this is that you'll get responsibilities and freedom of action you'll have nowhere else. It can be a curse as much as a blessing, but I loved it.
maCDzP 3y ago
I did training for the Red Cross to join the rooster. Never been deployed so I don’t have any field experience. I have friends whose whole career revolves around different deployments in hardship areas. From hearing people that have been in the field it sounds like a total shit show. But also very boring since you get to wait a lot. You also se a lot of traumatized people which I believe takes a toll on your mental health. I was surprised by the partying, alcohol seems like the preferred way to cope with the environment. All in all, the people I have met don’t seem at peace with themselves.
- BiteCode_dev 3y ago
  Alcohol, sex and a generous stock of dark humor.
alwa 3y ago
They do, although there are some organizational aspects to consider. Each nation has its own Red Cross/Red Crescent/Red Diamond committee and draws first from its own local roster. Other nations request specific expertise from sister committees from time to time, but it’s pretty rare. The American Red Cross, for example, deploys about 2 dozen individuals to support foreign disaster relief operations in a given year. As I recall that involves mainly people who are really good at setting up comms infrastructure, management experts, and GIS experts. The ICRC, as I understand it, works more across international lines, but their “technical” experts tend to specialize in aspects of international humanitarian law rather than technology per se. You certainly can, though, support domestic relief operations for the American Red Cross. Disaster Support Technologies roles tend to have more of a helpdesk flavor than the remote, wild-and-wooly jack-of-all-trades kind of experience that the OP describes. And there are also information and planning functions on large disaster relief operations, where your data analysis and GIS chops might be put to good use. Those jobs sometimes unfold in austere conditions—think after a hurricane or a wildfire—but they’re extremely well-supported, by contrast to the OP’s missions: you’ll have a safe and dry place to sleep, plenty to eat, the national warehouses will get you the stuff you need (albeit maybe not today), and so forth. The training is thorough and the crowd is mission-oriented. You can even work I&P roles remotely.

If someone wants to do something like this, I hear the Red Cross has pools of technical experts for emergency response situations. Does anyone have experience about that?

BiteCode_dev 3y ago

It's the case for many NGO. Just know that: - NGOs won't pay nearly as much as the private sector, obviously. - It's very hard to get in, at least for deployed missions. So do not hesitate to try again and again for a long time. - Once you are in, it ripples, and you easily get access to many other missions, provided you did a good job. It can be useful to accept something completely out of your main thing, just to get the foot in the door. - A lot of NGO work is actually not helping anybody. Be prepared to be disappointed. Some is good, but the amount of PR, virtue signaling and scams is staggering. Although many people are under the delusion they save the world. Do it for the experience, and maybe you'll get lucky and you'll do more good that bad, on average. Some days, I'm still unsure I did. But emergency responses are where the most unambiguous good is done. - If you do it for long enough, you will get hurt. That's just how it is. Sick, wounded, bankrupt... Something. That's one of the prices to pay. E.G: in West Africa, our first Malaria was kinda a rite of passage. We'd joke about it. You can't take pills with side effects for ever. - You'll need to be pretty autonomous. Nobody is going to take you by the hand. But the cool part of this is that you'll get responsibilities and freedom of action you'll have nowhere else. It can be a curse as much as a blessing, but I loved it.

maCDzP 3y ago

I did training for the Red Cross to join the rooster. Never been deployed so I don’t have any field experience. I have friends whose whole career revolves around different deployments in hardship areas. From hearing people that have been in the field it sounds like a total shit show. But also very boring since you get to wait a lot. You also se a lot of traumatized people which I believe takes a toll on your mental health. I was surprised by the partying, alcohol seems like the preferred way to cope with the environment. All in all, the people I have met don’t seem at peace with themselves.

BiteCode_dev 3y ago
Alcohol, sex and a generous stock of dark humor.

alwa 3y ago

They do, although there are some organizational aspects to consider. Each nation has its own Red Cross/Red Crescent/Red Diamond committee and draws first from its own local roster. Other nations request specific expertise from sister committees from time to time, but it’s pretty rare. The American Red Cross, for example, deploys about 2 dozen individuals to support foreign disaster relief operations in a given year. As I recall that involves mainly people who are really good at setting up comms infrastructure, management experts, and GIS experts. The ICRC, as I understand it, works more across international lines, but their “technical” experts tend to specialize in aspects of international humanitarian law rather than technology per se. You certainly can, though, support domestic relief operations for the American Red Cross. Disaster Support Technologies roles tend to have more of a helpdesk flavor than the remote, wild-and-wooly jack-of-all-trades kind of experience that the OP describes. And there are also information and planning functions on large disaster relief operations, where your data analysis and GIS chops might be put to good use. Those jobs sometimes unfold in austere conditions—think after a hurricane or a wildfire—but they’re extremely well-supported, by contrast to the OP’s missions: you’ll have a safe and dry place to sleep, plenty to eat, the national warehouses will get you the stuff you need (albeit maybe not today), and so forth. The training is thorough and the crowd is mission-oriented. You can even work I&P roles remotely.