Humanitarian agencies and short-term teams will find a treasure trove of helpful tools and information at AlertNet.org, a website tied to the global news organization Reuters. Its slogan is “Alerting humanitarians to emergencies.”
The Thomson Reuters Foundation started the site in 1997 “to place Reuters’ core skills of speed, accuracy and freedom from bias at the service of the humanitarian community.” The site serves as a resource both to journalists covering humanitarian crises and aid agencies seeking updated information critical to their delivery of services.
The foundation of AlertNet and their “community” is the membership of non-profit organizations actively involved in emergency relief. Also included are NGOs working in relief. These members publish their news from emergency hotspots directly to AlertNet.org. Members get emergency alerts and access to downloadable Reuters’ photographs that can be used in the organizations’ publications.
“AlertNet focuses its resources on covering fast-moving humanitarian emergencies and on the early warning of future emergencies,” says a statement on the website. It is a great source of current, often real-time information available to anyone accessing the site, not just members.
The site’s home page includes the latest alerts, news, and humanitarian headlines from around the world. Click on “AlertNet for Aid Workers” and you can access news, blogs, pictures and maps related to emergencies and humanitarian concerns. There also is a search feature allowing you to search by region, country, topic, date range, emergency type and more. You will find current, even breaking information, as well as archived materials.
The Crisis Briefings section provides a wealth of materials on more than 80 emergencies. In it there are related news stories, the situation at a glance and in detail, a timeline, statistics, links, and a listing of all the humanitarian agencies working that crisis.
While the site is most beneficial for humanitarian teams, any group ministering abroad will find the current country information helpful. Unlike government agency sites, like travel.state.gov, where the information provided could be weeks or even years old, AlertNet.org is very up to date. Plus you get the first-hand perspective of journalists and humanitarian workers who are “on the ground” and in the middle of whatever is taking place at the time.