August 2024 | 1599 words | 6-minute read
The reborn Defender crested and troughed as it effortlessly conquered the soft, towering dunes in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) — characteristic of off-roading experiences in the desert — before demonstrating its on-road comfort and agility while winding along the harrowing hairpins of the Jebel Jais highway on the country’s tallest mountain in Ras Al Khaimah.
It was a blistering 40°C morning in August 2019, and the new avatar of the legendary 4X4 was being tested (a year before its official launch in 2020) by all-terrain experts from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). In all, the new Defender prototype had clocked 1.2 million kilometres, including a week-long expedition in the Borana Conservancy in Kenya, where it showcased the breadth of its abilities while negotiating swampy riverbanks, dense forests and steep, rocky inclines, in the quest to support lion conservation.
History had come full circle. Not only was 2019 the 100th anniversary of the IFRC, a long-time partner of the Defender, but it was also the 65th year of the partnership, which began in 1954, when the Series 1 Land Rovers were fitted as mobile dispensaries and sent into service with the British Red Cross — to the UAE and Kenya.
As of 2024, the Defender, British Red Cross and IFRC partnership, which is in its 70th year, has impacted more than 2 million people through humanitarian work in disaster preparedness and response, and health and sanitation, across 50+ countries, by deploying 450+ vehicles to bring life-changing support to the most remote and inaccessible regions of the world. “The long-standing partnership between Defender and the IFRC shows what can be achieved when working together with a lasting commitment,” says Mark Cameron, Managing Director, Defender. “What started in the deserts of Dubai and forest villages of Kenya in 1954 has become part of our DNA.”
Beacons of hope
In 1954, the vehicles that were sent with accompanying nurses to remote areas in UAE and Kenya, had a singular purpose — to bring communities much-needed medical and welfare services for ailments, malnutrition, health and hygiene, with a focus on women and children. The Land Rover’s abilities ensured that the terrain was not a hindrance in taking vital aid to the people who needed it most, and that continues to be its mission. In Wales, a Defender 130 has been customised and converted to best suit the needs of the local British Red Cross crisis response team; features include drawer systems for first aid and other emergency supplies, multiple charging points, built-in water boilers, phone, a 4G-connected antenna, VHF radio and telematics system with GPS tracking, and even an integrated command centre for improved mission planning and emergency response.
Today, while providing vehicles is still an important aspect of this 70-year partnership, it has evolved over the years. Defender now also funds disaster preparedness and resilience projects to help vulnerable communities prepare, respond and recover from emergencies, and its reach remains as it always has been, global.
The partnership continues to offer support in the aftermath of natural disasters as it did in the past — during the cyclone in Andhra Pradesh, India, in 1977, hurricanes Hanna and Ike in Turks and Caicos in 2008-09, and hurricanes Gustav and Paloma in the Cayman Islands in 2008-09. Today, Defender also invests in flagship humanitarian projects that help communities build strength and resilience to the unpredictable, from nature-based solutions to reduce the risk of landslides due to climate change, to training community members on minimising flood risk.
Additionally, the partnership made an impact in Sierra Leone in 2010, towards the end of the civil war, reaching remote communities and improving access to health care and safe water, and in Tajikistan in 2015, increasing skills and knowledge in first aid, health and hygiene among over 42,000 adults and 4,000 children. During the Covid-19 pandemic, JLR provided 267 Defenders and other vehicles to help the partnership deliver food, protective equipment, first aid knowledge and medicine to vulnerable and isolated communities around the world.
The British Red Cross and Defender work closely together in many other ways — training JLR staff in first aid, fundraising through the London Marathon and challenge events, and through a volunteering programme. Currently, JLR is also supporting the British Red Cross in a project to redesign and build a new corporate volunteering programme.
Preparation is key
Defender aand the Red Cross work together to build and strengthen the resilience of vulnerable and remote communities through disaster preparedness activities. Since 2022, the partnership has supported flagship projects in Nepal, Australia, Italy, Switzerland and the UK.
- A project in New South Wales, Australia, builds community resilience in preparation for calamities like bush fires and floods by focusing on citizens as active participants in the emergency management process. A fleet of Defenders supports the Australian Red Cross to conduct other programmes, such as in Western Australia, where teams deliver training and community events to help people prepare and respond to bushfires in Victoria, including training, workshops and first aid courses; and South Australia, where the Defender has enabled an immersive recovery tour and ensured safe access to remote areas.
Impact: 51,000+ beneficiaries
- In Italy, funding supports training, equipment and deployment drills to enhance the search and rescue capabilities of Red Cross teams. The teams are provided with vital equipment and receive training sessions, workshops and scenario-based simulations to help grow the Italian Red Cross’ operational capacity to respond to domestic and international crises. For instance, the Italian Red Cross, with support from Defender, brought together emergency response teams from the Ukrainian Red Cross and delegates from Ukraine’s state emergency services for a joint training on emergency planning to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the country.
Impact: 900+ beneficiaries
- Nepal is a global hotspot for natural disasters and 90% of the population resides in high-risk areas with approximately 486 disaster events occurring annually. Through a community resilience project, Defender is helping communities in eight towns with emergency preparedness by bringing communities and agencies together, as well as through training, capacity building events, and promoting health and sanitation.
Impact: 27,000+ beneficiaries
- In Switzerland, Defender is helping fund REDOG, a search and rescue project that develops disaster dog search capacity to enable rapid deployment of its search dog teams. Since April 2023, 400 team members have received training, through 830 sessions, to refine their techniques for missing and buried person searches. The team was also involved in five search and rescue missions, which involved 23 dog teams and 150 volunteers.
Impact: 700+ beneficiaries
- In the UK, Defender supports crisis response teams that assist people affected by floods and other weather-related events, as well as those affected by house fires and power cuts. Funds enable training of volunteers and provision of essential items such as torches, warm clothing, emergency food and personal care packages.
Impact: 64,000+ beneficiaries
Emergency response
IFRC and Defender also work together to facilitate support for people and communities after disasters and emergencies. As a member of the Disaster Relief Alliance, which supports the British Red Cross, Defender has supported communities in the aftermath of earthquakes, conflict-related crises, and impacts of climate change, assisting in 13 major responses since October 2023, including the earthquake in Nepal, floods in Nigeria and El Nino’s impact in Kenya. Defender has also helped ensure that the British Red Cross was able to provide immediate relief, essential equipment, recovery spaces and vital resources during 1,804 emergency incidents in the UK, just between October 2023 and March 2024. These include domestic fires and floods, gas or power outages, winter storms and search and rescue missions.
In February 2023, Defender supported IFRC when a series of earthquakes in Turkey and Syria — the worst in 20 years — killed 55,000+ people. Two Defender vehicles from the IFRC Europe fleet were deployed to support vital disaster response and recovery work. Five Defender vehicles were deployed to assist Red Crescent emergency response and recovery work in hard-to-reach villages in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, following a devastating earthquake in September 2023, which resulted in nearly 3,000 fatalities.
Recently, the Defender team in Brazil provided three vehicles to support the humanitarian effort in the hard-hit areas of Porto Alegre and Caxias do Sul, where flooding impacted 2 million+ people in May.
Partnering for the future
Defender aims to reach more countries in the next iteration of the partnership, starting in 2025. It intends to increase the impact of its partnership by encouraging markets to cultivate relationships with their own local Red Cross or Red Crescent Society and together develop projects that meet local needs. Defender will also continue to support global projects in the most at-risk countries through the central partnership team. “By combining both approaches, we hope that the partnership will grow from strength to strength, reach more people in need and continue to build on the legacy of the last 70 years,” says Mr Cameron.
—Anuradha Anupkumar
