Training Curriculum for Community-based Volunteers Repair and Maintenance of Water Supply Systems

Volunteers and communities are at the heart of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ mission to mobilize the power of humanity and improve the lives of vulnerable people. Red Cross volunteers play a vital role in helping to meet today’s humanitarian challenges, not just during disasters and emergencies, but also in early recovery and on a day-to-day basis in their own communities.

Assisted by the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has developed this curriculum to be used by National Societies to mobilize and train volunteers on community-based water supply and sanitation. Volunteers will be trained to carry out activities in the community, with a belief that local volunteers better understand how a particular community lives and works, as well as their water and sanitation needs.

Work done by Red Cross volunteers is integrated into existing water and sanitation services and mechanisms offered by governments, which usually become stretched during times of crises. Yet during these times, there are more people in need and they have a greater vulnerability.

This curriculum will be used to train Red Cross volunteers who will be called upon by government during times of crisis.

Creating a core group of easily available, readily deployable first responders is a way of strengthening water and sanitation services and public infrastructure systems by creating a surge of capacity when there is sudden need. The group of trained first responders will be given full identification that introduces them to support the government during times of crisis.

This new and innovative method of creating surge capacity is a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) activity that not only builds resilience in the community, but also creates a mechanism for good and timely early response to a crisis.