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Federation expertise in emergency shelter highlighted at the Milan Triennale architectural exhibition

Marie-Françoise Borel, Geneva

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is showing two types of emergency and temporary shelters at the prestigious Triennale of Milano architectural exhibition, which opened on 22 May in the northern Italian city of Milan. Established in 1933, the Triennale is the only institution in Italy entirely dedicated to architecture and design. This year, the four-month-long event focuses on contemporary lifestyles, under the theme A House for All.

On display in the Emergencies section are full-size examples of a Light Weight Emergency Tent (LWET) and a temporary shelter module, built by and for survivors of the August 2007 Peru earthquake, in dry, desert rural areas. Also highlighted is a Federation shelter kit, distributed to earthquake or cyclone survivors (containing plastic sheeting and tools - hammer, handsaw, nails and wire). Tents are used in particular for populations displaced for a short period of time, while kits can provide longer-term shelter.

'Shelter is much more than just putting a more or less permanent roof over someone's head. It is a means of providing a family or a person - usually traumatised by a recent natural disaster or other crisis - with security, with protection from the weather and from disease, as well as with a degree of intimacy and comfort to help them rebuild their lives,' explains Anna Maria Selleri, Senior Officer for the International Federation's Shelter Programme, based in Geneva. 'We are very proud to show examples of our expertise at this exhibition, where architecture - the art and science of building, will demonstrate one of its essential facets - the humanitarian one.'

The Federation's innovative and successful Yogyakarta early recovery programme - designed for survivors of the massive May 2006 earthquake in Indonesia, is also explained, through images, text and panels. Inspired by the Javanese tradition of Gotong Royong (mutual support), this programme sent teams of Red Cross volunteers, trained in quake-proof construction and financial management, into villages, to support the construction of strong, long-lasting and flexible shelters, made out of inexpensive local materials, such as bamboo and rope.

The International Federation has a long history of responding to the shelter needs of millions of vulnerable people around the world. The most recent example is Myanmar, where it will provide shelter kits for 40,000 families initially, to be followed by 60,000 more over the next six to twelve months, to protect cyclone survivors.

Since 2003, expenditure on shelter by Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has exceeded 300 million Swiss francs (US$ 289 million / € 184 million). Through its Shelter Programme, the Federation is committed to significantly increasing its capacities and resources to provide quality emergency shelter, support transitional and permanent shelter activities and take on an international coordinating role in the provision of emergency shelter in natural disasters.