How to do VCA? - International Federation of Red Cross and Red ...

26International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent SocietiesBox 6Realizing that VCA is not alwaysthe best way forwardIn 2002, a health delegate working with the Belarusian Red Crosswanted to help the National Society to learn about VCA, so that theycould decide whether or not to carry out an assessment. A VCA trainerorganized a workshop, which was attended by senior National Societymanagement, staff and volunteers, to illustrate how the VCA processcould help National Societies identify key hazards, risks and capacities.In this case, the process showed that most of the problems facingBelarus were health-related and many stemmed from the 1986Chernobyl disaster.But the most important thing that the Belarusian Red Cross participantslearned was that their National Society was not yet ready to undertakea VCA, and that other tools were more appropriate for the activitiesthey wanted to carry out at that time.The sensitization workshop was successful in that it prevented aNational Society from carrying out an assessment which, based onits key programme priorities, was inappropriate. It also showedparticipants that the National Society did not yet have the capacityto carry out a VCA effectively.In 2005, the Belarusian Red Cross was able to carry out VCA anddemonstrate how local community assessment could be connected tonational-level risk, hazard and capacities mapping.