Rachel is the Disaster Specialist and Policy Advisor for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Working in the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, Rachel and her team monitor and respond to their specific region of the world for disasters ranging from hurricanes and earthquakes to complex conflicts rising from war-torn nations.
Transcript
>> My name is Rachel Sayre. And I work as a disaster specialist at the U.S. Agency For International Development. So a disaster specialist works in our office of Foreign Disaster Assistance At USA. And we watch over the world for impending disasters. So hurricanes. Tsunamis. Earthquakes. We have whole teams of folks who are just always watching the regions we're assigned to cover and getting ready in case anything happens. We also cover complex emergencies. So complex emergencies are really conflict-driven. Such as wars in Yemen and Syria. If you're assigned to, say, the Asia region, it could be that in that week that there is an earthquake in one of the countries that you're covering. So if that happens, then you are talking with our team in the field to see if we need to send an assessment team. And see if, see what the needs might be in relation to that natural disaster that just happened. So if there's needs, then kind of a whole process is kicked into gear to respond to making sure that the people who are affected have what they need. And there's, of course, meetings for coordination. A lot of phone calls. A lot of, you know, off hours work if it's, you know, at a place that's not on our same time zone. And then keeping everyone informed, both in Washington and in the field, who's affected.
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