Mohammed Abdulkarim remembers clearly the first time he was called out as a British Red Cross emergency response volunteer four years ago. A fire, thought to have been started by a discarded cigarette, ripped through a seven-storey student accommodation block in Bolton within minutes. All 217 students were safely rescued from the blaze thanks to 200 firefighters and fire engines from across the region.
It was up to Abdulkarim and his trained British Red Cross team to run the emergency centre set up in the borough, which is part of Greater Manchester, to support students made homeless by the fire. “The entire building had burnt down and the whole of the area had to be evacuated,” he says. “I was based in the rest centre where a flow of people were coming in and dropping off clothes and hygiene packs as well as making donations.” He gave whatever help was needed. “Sometimes that meant just sitting down and listening to somebody who needed to talk.”
Abdulkarim, 28, is one of the thousands of British Red Cross emergency response volunteers who are on call around the clock, 365 days a year, trained to give practical and emotional support to any individual caught up in an emergency in the UK. They respond to a range of incidents from a fire or flood in a family home that leaves people homeless to national crises such as Covid or emergencies such as the Grenfell fire. They are trained to help in an emergency, from setting up a rest centre for people having to leave their homes due to flooding, fire or bad weather to running a support line during a national disaster. So far, this year the emergency responders have helped 15,570 people in the UK.
As an emergency responder, Mohammed Abdulkarim has provided support to people made homeless by fire, distributed food parcels during the pandemic and welcomed refugees from Ukraine
Abdulkarim began his volunteering journey with the British Red Cross as an emergency first aider and then trained as an emergency response volunteer because of his passion for helping people and his Islamic faith.
“My religion is very important to me,” he says. “If something bad happens to your neighbour you can’t just sit there and do nothing and see them suffer – it’s your duty to respond.”
During the Covid pandemic he helped hand out emergency food parcels to people in need and last year he was there to welcome refugees fleeing the conflict in Ukraine as they touched down at Manchester airport. He spent a week at the airport handing out hygiene packs, phone and cash cards, even teddies. “The refugees were very traumatised,” he says. Abdulkarim, who lives in Manchester, could empathise with those arriving, as seven years earlier he had made a similar journey – leaving Sudan as a refugee to begin what he hoped was a new life, full of opportunity in the UK. “I knew exactly how they felt – especially when it’s hard to put into words how you feel,” he says. “I think I made them feel more comfortable.”
Fellow emergency response volunteer Kate Bedding says she only found out about the role when she started working for the British Red Cross four years ago, teaching first aid skills to the public. Today, alongside her paid job as learning and development manager for the British Red Cross’s crisis emergency response team, she also finds time to volunteer as an emergency responder in Devon and Cornwall.
“You give up just a couple of hours of your week but get so much in return,” she says. “I don’t think working for the charity makes me a better emergency responder,” she says. “But it has definitely informed my work – it brings a different perspective. Our work is changing all the time and it’s important to be on top of those changes.”
Kate Bedding’s volunteering has taken her from providing psychosocial support in Devon and Cornwall to welcoming Sudanese refugees in Cyprus
Bedding is on call for three months of the year as a specialist psychosocial emergency response volunteer trained to offer holistic emotional and practical support to people in need. As well as aiding families and individuals caught up in various types of emergencies, Bedding sometimes finds herself working with the police and the National Crime Agency supporting the victims of people trafficking, who have been moved to a place of safety following a police raid.
“We offer psychosocial and other support, whatever it entails,” she says. “It can often mean sitting down with somebody and listening to their stories.”
In May this year her volunteering spirit took her overseas for the first time when she was one of six specialist emergency response volunteers from the British Red Cross deployed to Cyprus. She was there working with a team from the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office supporting evacuees fleeing the conflict in Sudan. The team met people arriving in military aircraft from Sudan, providing emotional support and practical help until people could make their onward journeys to the UK.
“I felt with all the training I had been given that I had the confidence to do the job expected of me in Cyprus,” she says. And the reward of knowing that she had helped people in crisis was huge.
“You should have seen the relief on people’s faces when they knew they were going to be met by members of the British Red Cross when they landed in the UK,” she says. It was a transformative event: “At that moment I realised the power of the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement; to be able to give support and be part of a person’s journey through such a harrowing time was both humbling for me and a privilege.”
Here for humanity
The British Red Cross is on the ground to support communities and provide vital relief. Together with your help, we are the world’s emergency responders. Please donate to the British Red Cross today
The British Red Cross Society, incorporated by Royal Charter 1908, is a charity registered in England and Wales (220949), Scotland (SC037738), Isle of Man (0752) and Jersey (430).
