NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / June 6, 2024 / Over the past year, a $200,000 Sands Cares contribution to Americares has continued support for the health-focused relief and development organization's Asia regional response hub in the Philippines, which Sands has supported since 2020.

In addition, the Sands Cares funding encompasses new U.S. support to help Americares drive recruitment and training initiatives for its roster of qualified emergency responders - medical professionals and emergency response experts - who deploy quickly when disasters strike. The U.S. engagement has centered on creating a regional ambassador structure by recruiting and training 25 new roster members from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Americares responds to more than 30 emergencies, including earthquakes, hurricanes, disease outbreaks and humanitarian crises, around the world each year. Americares maintains a global roster of more than 900 trained professionals who can be activated for deployment.

With the Sands Cares support, Americares began adding new U.S. roster members from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut last July and has already identified 25 professionals who just began the training process. Americares held a training for the new roster members on May 17 in Long Island City, N.Y. The full-day session covered extensive training in Americares emergency response policies and procedures to ensure emergency response teams align with international humanitarian standards.

In the Asia Pacific region, Americares has continued utilizing Sands Cares funding for emergency response training at its Philippines regional hub, which included a regional simulation exercise for 35 roster members in early December. Americares also held a series of disaster risk reduction simulation exercises throughout the Philippines in early May to prepare responders to assess health facilities and provide clinical care and health promotion activities in the immediate aftermath of emergencies.

"The previous investment Sands made in our Philippines emergency programs greatly increased our capacity in Southeast Asia, allowing us to quickly and effectively respond to disasters with medical personnel, medicine, supplies and health programs," said Provash Budden, Americares deputy senior vice president of emergency programs. "At the same time, our continued partnership is further bolstering our response capabilities and growing our roster of qualified responders in the U.S."

The 2023-2024 partnership with Americares extended the previous Sands Cares engagement that began in 2020 and supported the organization's first regional response hub in the Philippines. With the initial Sands Cares funding, Americares increased its emergency roster from 20 to more than 180 members between 2020-2022 and conducted a large-scale regional emergency simulation exercise involving nearly 60 staff and roster members in the Philippines.

During this time, the Sands Cares' support helped Americares launch responses out of the Philippines hub for Typhoons Doksuri, Noru, Goni, Vamco and Rai; Tropical Storm Nalgae; the Taal Volcano eruption in the Philippines and severe flooding in Vietnam.

Sands' partnership with Americares is one of several Sands Cares engagements with emergency response and relief organizations in its local communities. To help its regions prepare for and respond to emergencies, Sands Cares' disaster response and preparedness initiatives span on-the-ground support through funding and in-kind resources, as well as infrastructure investments to help ensure community resilience when crises occur.

To learn more about Sands' disaster preparedness and response work, read the company's most recent ESG Report:

Photo: Zach Dilgard/Americares

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