Resources Database

The role of volunteers in emergencies is increasingly complex. In the emergency environment, staff and volunteers are exposed to trauma, loss and devastation, injury and even death.

It is of course difficult to prepare for every type of event and to include every single volunteer. But it is possible to be prepared, both for supporting the well-being of staff and volunteers, as well as for the many other aspects of disaster response.

This guidance note is a quick reference tool for providing effective care and support to volunteers during the different phases of a COVID-19 response. To effectively care for and support volunteers involved in a COVID-19 response, robust volunteer care systems are needed to enhance their safety and psychosocial well-being.

The Hong Kong Red Cross developed messages of psychosocial support for families, friends and colleagues of those in quarantine or self-isolation.

Available in additional languages on the IFRC website.

Psychological first aid (PFA) is a method of helping people in distress so they feel calm and supported to cope better with their challenges. It is a way of assisting someone to manage their situation and make informed decisions. The basis of psychological first aid is caring about the person in distress and showing empathy. It involves paying attention to reactions, active listening and, if needed, practical assistance, such as problem solving, help to access basic needs or referring to further options for assistance.

The Alliance produced this technical note on the protection of children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this brief is to support child protection practitioners to better respond to the child protection risks during a COVID-19 pandemic. Part 1 presents the potential child protection risks COVID-19 can pose to children.

This resource includes key considerations for service providers and others in ensuring health, protections and accessibility to needed services during COVID-19.

This document makes recommendations for ensuring protections, access to services, inclusivity and support by frontline practitioners and programmatic staff.

The Toolkit on Unaccompanied and Separated Children compiles 56 tools for the use of practitioners working with unaccompanied and separated children (UASC).

This briefing note summarises key mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) considerations in relation to the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. It includes messages to frontline workers and supervisors for keeping all staff protected from chronic stress and poor mental health during this response.

This document calls on public authorities to take steps to prevent separation and implement adequate care and protection measures during COVID-19.

This toolkit is intended to support frontline providers and program managers in decision-making for placement of care of children impacted by emergencies. It offers guidance on the types of services needed, child protection considerations, monitoring and reviewing care planning and reunification processes. 

In the event of an outbreak in your community, as a parent/caregiver, your first concern is about how to protect and take care of your children and family. Knowing important information about the outbreak and learning how to be prepared can reduce your stress and help calm likely anxieties. This resource will help you think about how an infectious disease outbreak might affect your family—both physically and emotionally—and what you can do to help your family cope.

This document offers guidance on adapting and/or developing services and programming to continue to best serve children and families throughout the rapidly changing times of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly on conducting virtual monitoring of children, families, alternative care placements and residential care facilities.

Women, the elderly, adolescents, youth, and children, persons with disabilities, indigenous populations, refugees, migrants, and minorities experience the highest degree of socio-economic marginalization. Marginalized people become even more vulnerable in emergencies.

By understanding these issues, we can support the capacity of vulnerable populations in emergencies. We can give them priority assistance, and engage them in decision-making processes for response, recovery, preparedness, and risk reduction.

This Interim Guidance is intended for field coordinators, camp managers and public health personnel, as well as national and local governments and the wider humanitarian community working in humanitarian situations, including camps and camp-like settings, who are involved in the decision making and implementation of multi-sectorial COVID19 outbreak readiness and response activities – the Guidance is therefore relevant for all Humanitarian Clusters and their partners.

This resource provides guidance to Save the Children and its related programs on mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 for vulnerable groups. It includes guidance on child protection, child participation, MHPSS, child safeguarding and integration of services.

This report is a compilation of four years of research from desk reviews to try to determine numbers and current sitaution of children in alternative care.

The OFDA-funded READY Initiative developed this checklist for INGOs/NGOs working in humanitarian response, primarily to use in regional/country level Outbreak Preparedness Planning Workshops.

Children in particular are vulnerable during infectious disease outbreaks for a variety of reasons.

This note aims to provide practical support to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) practitioners to adapt GBV case management service delivery models quickly and ethically during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Given the increase in reports of GBV, ensuring that women and girls can access GBV support services remains a critical and lifesaving activity. At the same time, maintaining the health and wellbeing of GBV case workers and contributing to rigorous efforts to stop the pandemic are of critical concern, presenting a challenge to traditional modes of GBV service delivery.