One sweltering day in the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu, a Tuvalu Red Cross Society team heads off to Funafala Islet, a 45-minute boat trip from the main atoll, Funafuti. The eight families living on Funafala have no way of communicating with the outside world. If there’s a cyclone, storm surge or a medical emergency, they are stuck.

On Funafala, the Tuvalu Red Cross delivers a solar-powered satellite phone and trains residents in its use. Together, they draw a map of hazards in the environment, such as the directions storms normally arrive from. They discuss what resources the community has to cope with such disasters.

In related programmes, pairs of volunteers visit older people or people with disabilities to check on their well-being. The Red Cross, which is a National Society in formation, has identified the people who might need help to evacuate in a disaster. Volunteers plant pandanus trees on the coast, pick up rubbish and educate children about the environment. Next to Tuvalu Red Cross headquarters is a shipping container stocked with blankets, sheets and 20-litre water containers.

Preparation is essential. More frequent and more severe storms, erosion, salty vegetable gardens, contaminated groundwater and rising sea levels are a fact of life for the 10,000 people who live on nine bumps of volcanic rock that peek a bare five metres above sea level.

Tataua Pese, the climate change and disaster management officer with the Tuvalu Red Cross, says, “There are many ways we can assist people to stay and look into the future. If we want to assist the next generation to see the beauty of the islands, we had better keep working, not give up and go to live in other countries.”