[191210.EN.LOG] DHL and UN OCHA Extend Humanitarian Partnership

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) and Deutsche Post DHL have renewed their partnership for another three years.

In close cooperation with the UN, Deutsche Post DHL assists the authorities of affected countries and the humanitarian relief community in the handling and storing of relief cargo at airports in disaster regions.

UN OCHA benefits from the logistics and warehousing expertise by Deutsche Post DHL, a service that the United Nations would not be able to maintain on its own all year long. In return, the work of DHL's Disaster Response Teams is integrated into humanitarian relief operations and thus benefits from the UN's strong linkage to other international disaster response players.

DHL's global Disaster Response Teams network consists of three teams, each of which is assigned to a specific geographic region covering Asia Pacific, Latin America/the Caribbean and the Middle East/Africa.

Each team consists of a pool of about eighty specially trained DHL employees who have volunteered to take part in the pro-bono humanitarian efforts. In case of an emergency, volunteers can deploy within 72 hours to a disaster hit region.

During an average stay of two to three weeks on the ground, the team of 10 at a time alternates to ensure the highest level of proficiency under very demanding circumstances.

Over the past years, DHL's Disaster Response Teams have been deployed almost twenty times to the airports of some fifteen disaster hit countries, including to Haiti, Guatemala, Chile, the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Peru and Pakistan.

Source : EFT, 14.12.10