Every year, small and medium-sized disasters occur in our District, examples such as floods, droughts, cyclones and fire events are all too familiar to us. Response is often varied and uncoordinated and Rotary often needs to seek money from communities and clubs.

Without an ongoing fund this results in a delayed response. Given the size of the new District it is inevitable that there will be a disaster of some kind each year. In order to support these smaller emergencies or disasters, or to provide initial funding before emergency appeals are launched, I am recommending the establishment of an ongoing District Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DDREF) to support operations for any disaster that occurs within the District,

What is the DDREF?

The DDREF will be established by the District Board and have a separate account that can only be used for funding of disaster relief programs. It should be noted there is currently a drought relief fund held by the Rotary Club of Pioneer Valley and overseen by a District Drought Committee– this should remain under the management of the District Drought Committee. However, the DDREF should be able to complement the Drought fund. The DDREF will be able to to provide immediate financial support to District responses to a wide range of disasters , enabling them to implement responses more efficiently than before.

All requests for DREF allocations will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Money can be authorised and released immediately. The decision to fund projects from the DDREF should be a joint decision of the District Governor and the District Manager of Disaster Relief.

How is the DDREF funded?

Initial funds will come from an existing Disaster relief fund held in a sperate account by District D9550. In addition, the DDREF will increased by D9570 transferring the equivalent funds (then held by D9650 in the DDREF). Other funds for DDREF will be sought through an appeal to clubs. This allows the District to maintain the necessary balance of funds to meet the requests for support.

In addition, the new District will need to annually fund the DDREF through ongoing District funds.