The British Red Cross has partnered with Tesco to create a new Disaster Relief Alliance to provide financial support to areas of vulnerability before a disaster occurs.  

Tesco became involved with the British Red Cross in 2004 following the Boxing Day Tsunami that killed over 230,000 people in 14 countries. Since then it has donated over £10m to the charity through corporate donations, customer and colleague fundraising.

A spokeswoman for the British Red Cross told Civil Society News that: “This is a long-term commitment from Tesco to donate each year to help protect areas of vulnerability.

“We are hoping to build a network of corporate sponsors to help communities that are vulnerable to damage. Tesco is the first corporate organisation to sign up and are at the forefront of this public effort.

“A corporate sponsor would usually help after a disaster but this new initiative is different in that they will help before an emergency, enabling their money to go further.”

Mark Astarita, director of fundraising for the British Red Cross said: “We are delighted to have Tesco as a founding member of the Disaster Response Alliance and are grateful for their longstanding support. We are very excited about the potential the alliance has to make a difference to the lives of vulnerable people. The value of disaster preparedness really cannot be underestimated.

“Research shows that every £1 spent on disaster preparedness saves £4 on emergency response. For donors like Tesco, this means their funding will have a much greater impact.”

Rebecca Shelley, corporate affairs director for Tesco said: “It’s our privilege to be a founding partner for the Disaster Relief Alliance. This partnership will help to save lives by helping communities at risk to prepare themselves before a disaster strikes. We hope more organisations will sign up to support the Disaster Relief Alliance too.”

The British Red Cross responds to hundreds of emergencies every year and often places teams in vulnerable areas before a disaster occurs to carry out resilience work to ensure that disaster damage is minimised.

The new Alliance will be comprised of both corporate partners and private donors and will ensure more funds are available to continue the charity’s work, including long-term recovery programmes that often go on for several years following an emergency.