Sudarana, a 20 year-old Sri Lankan woman trained as de-mining technician by the UK charity HALO Trust, Thunukkai, northern Sri Lanka, March 2010. Sudurana was one of a number of women that were recruited by HALO with the help of a £500,000 UK aid grant from the Department for International Development. Working alongside the Sri Lankan authorities, HALO had already made safe more than 16,000 land mines in the first two months of 2010 alone. Northern Sri Lanka was heavily mined and contaminated with unexploded munitions during the 26 year long civil war which ended in 2009. Demining is still ongoing in Sri Lanka, but the country hopes to be declared land mine free in 2025.

Trees shrouded in spider webs following extreme flooding in Sindh province, Pakistan, December 2010. An unexpected side-effect of the 2010 mega-flood in parts of Pakistan was that millions of spiders and other insects climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters. Six months on from the initial unprecedented rainfall, the scale of the flooding (an area the size of England was affected) and the fact that the water took so long to recede, had lead to an insect population explosion and many trees had become cocooned in webs. Although large-scale flooding periodically occurs in the region, people in this part of Sindh had never seen this phenomenon before. They also reported that there were fewer mosquitos than they would expect, given the amount of stagnant, standing water that was around. There were anecdotal reports of fewer instances of malaria than expected as well, although there was no evidence to prove a link. UK aid - in response to the Pakistan floods - helped millions of survivors return home and rebuild their lives.

Elizabeth Mukwimba, a 62-year-old Tanzanian woman who now has solar lighting and electricity in her home at the flick of a switch, thanks to a scheme backed by UK aid. Lake Victoria, Tanzania, August 2015. Elizabeth has had an M-Power solar panel and lights fitted in her home by Off Grid Electric, a private sector company dedicated to providing sustainable, affordable energy to people in developing countries who aren't connected to the electricity grid. It means that Elizabeth now has lighting at home at night, which means she doesn't have to buy expensive kerosene. The money she's saved already has helped her put a new tin roof on her house. It also means her grandchildren can read and do their homework in the evening. UK aid, working with the Dutch NGO SNV, is providing support to help Off Grid Electric expand its business to reach more and more people who live in remote, rural areas, through two international partnership programmes - Energising Development (EnDev), and the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund Renewable Energy and Adaptation to Climate Technologies (AECF REACT). In less than 2 years, Off Grid Electric has installed solar power systems in over 22,000 homes across Tanzania, meaning many more people now have access to cheap, renewable electricity - a vital step forward in a country where less than 14% of the population are connected to the electricity grid.

A Haitian worker at a factory run by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Port au Prince, Haiti, June 2010 Employing 20 young men from the Cite Soleil area of the city, the factory was producing temporary homes for thousands of families who lost their homes in the massive earthquake which struck Haiti on 12 January 2010. Six months after the earthquake, the majority of people were still living in emergency shelters - tents and plastic sheeting - but projects such as this would enable many families to be re-housed into more robust shelter over the coming months. UK aid from the Department for International Development is supporting UNOPS to continue this shelter construction project through a £326,000 grant.

Elyse Musandji, president of a community nutrition group in Masi Manimba, Democratic Republic of Congo, June 2012. Wearing a dress that celebrates International Women's Day, Elyse teaches members of a neighbouring community how to produce milk from peanuts. Peanuts are a locally grown product which are typically roasted and sold as a roadside snack. But they can be turned into a nutritious milk - which children love - by soaking them in water, grinding them in a mortar and filtering the paste.

"We used to have a lot of malnutrition cases here, but Action Against Hunger taught us that one way to tackle this was to turn peanuts into milk, rather than just eating them", says Elyse.

"We can grow the peanuts easily, and the children love to drink the milk.”

Acute malnutrition is a major public health problem across the Democratic Republic of Congo. UK aid supported the government of DRC and aid agencies including Action Against Hunger to provide emergency nutrition response programmes across DRC in 2010 and 2011.

Hassoun, a Syrian refugee in Jordan's Zaatari camp, keeping birds as a hobby, March 2015. The harsh, desert camp at Zaatari in northern Jordan is just a few miles from the Syrian border. With its dust and baking heat, is home to around 100,000 refugees from the conflict in Syria. UK aid is supporting refugees like Hassoun there, and has helped in building the camp’s infrastructure and supporting its much-needed services, providing shelter, education and healthcare.

A child’s upper arm is measured at a health centre in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district, May 2013. Undernutrition affects half of all children in Madhya Pradesh, and can lead to stunting. UK aid was working with the Madhya Pradesh state government to ensure that more children are reached with nutrition services, such as regular screening. UK aid had helped to provide nutrition services to nearly half a million children and pregnant women in Madhya Pradesh over the previous three years.

Royal Air Force servicemen and Filipino volunteers help unload UK aid from an RAF C-130 cargo plane in Ormoc, an island in the Philippines that was devastated by Typhon Haiyan in November 2013.

Nahed and her daughter, refugees from Homs in Syria, learning to make fishing nets in Lebanon, 2014. Learning how to knit fishing nets might not seem the most urgent priority for refugees who fled Syria’s civil war, yet providing the essential tools to help refugees to find work is a vital way to help them support themselves. In addition to livelihoods projects like this one, UK funding is providing support including food, medical care and relief items for over a million Syrians who have been affected by the fighting but are still inside Syria and those who have fled the country and become refugees in neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.

Nepalese villagers carry UK aid shelter kits back to the remains of their homes in Sindhupalchok district, 10 days after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the country on 25 April 2015. On 25 April 2015, Nepal was struck by a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Over 9,000 people lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands were left homeless as countless buildings either completely collapsed or were damaged beyond repair. The UK deployed its International Search & Rescue and Emergency Medical Teams, alongside providing shelter kits for 250,000 people as well as other essential aid in response to the disaster.

Egbert Oliver stands on the roof of the remains of his house in Road Town, on the British Virgin Island of Tortola, 23 September 2017. Egbert Oliver stands on the temporary roof of the one remaining room of his house in Road Town, Tortola, BVI. His home was almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Irma, but he has now received a tarpaulin shelter kit supplied by UK aid, which he is using to try and make his one remaining room watertight again.

"I need more plywood and timber but this will help keep me dry for now", he says.

"It's a good size, just big enough to cover the room. I'm just trying to fix it down tight so that it won't blow away in another storm".

18-month-old James and his mother Margaret, pictured with a supply of sachets of Plumpy Nut, a Ready to Use Therapeutic Food used to treat acute malnutrition, Turkana County, northern Kenya, 28 March 2017. Margaret had brought James along to a Save the Children and UNICEF pop-up outreach clinic supported by UK aid. The aid agencies are travelling to remote nomadic communities across Kenya to provide support for malnutrition, vaccines, maternal healthcare and basic medical treatment. James was identified as suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition, weighing just 7.6kgs, and mum Margaret was prescribed with enough Plumpy Nut to treat him for a week. Each sachet of Plumpy Nut contains a nutrient-enriched peanut paste packed with 500 kilocalories. 3 sachets a day help severely malnourished children to safely and rapidly recover weight. UK aid was supporting the production and distribution of nutrient-enriched peanut paste in Kenya, to help treat children suffering from malnutrition as a result of the extended drought which was gripping much of the country in 2017.

Becky Platt, a paediatric nurse from Watford, England, is pictured wearing protective equipment in a specially constructed clinic in the Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh, January 2018. British medic Becky Platt was part of the UK's Emergency Medical Team, which is drawn from volunteers across the NHS. The team was deployed to Bangladesh at the end of December 2017 by the Department for International Development, in response to a request for international assistance by the Government of Bangladesh and the World Health Organisation to help contain an outbreak of diphtheria in the huge camps which sprang up around Cox's Bazar in the south of the country, since the arrival of over 700,000 thousand Rohingya people fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar. Diphtheria is a potentially fatal contagious bacterial infection that mainly affects the nose and throat, and sometimes the skin. By February 2018, thanks to the combined efforts of numerous medical teams working with the Bangladeshi Ministry of Health, the outbreak had been largely brought under control. There were over 5,000 suspected cases and sadly at least 37 deaths - but without the emergency interventions, many more people may have died.

Khadra, a Syrian refugee, pictured in the informal shelter that she now calls home, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, March 2018 Khadra, a Syrian refugee, pictured in the informal shelter that she now calls home, in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, a few miles from the border with Syria. Khadra is from Hasakah in northeast Syria, but fled to Lebanon in 2015 when the war meant it became too dangerous to stay there.

"My husband and eldest son were out at work when the fighting suddenly came to our village one day", says Khadra.

"I couldn't get hold of them on the phone. I realised I had to make a decision about what to do. I decided that if we stayed, we were going to die, so I grabbed my 3 daughters and my other son, and we fled with nothing except the clothes we were wearing.

"I haven't been able to contact my husband or my eldest son since. I've got no idea what happened to them, or if they are still alive or not. Can you imagine not knowing?"

Khadra eventually found herself in Lebanon, and has been living with her son and daughters in the same informal settlement ever since, struggling to survive and make ends meet.

But over the last few months things have started to improve as they're now receiving aid in the form of a WFP cash transfer scheme supported by the UK. Khadra now has an e-card - a bit like a debit card - which is topped up with a small amount of money each month.

She can use it to draw cash from an ATM just like an ordinary debit card. It's just about enough to cover buying food, basic medicines, fuel and the rent that she still has to pay for the flimsy shack-like tent that the family is living in.

Crucially, it means that Khadra herself can decide what she needs. The scheme means that Khadra receives about $310 a month - not much to support a family of 5 on.

"It just about covers our basic needs, and it's taken some weight off my mind", she explains.

"It means that I can now buy some meat or vegetables for us to eat occasionally instead of living on bread and rice all the time, or pay for my duaghter's medication when it runs out.

"If I can save up some money it might mean that my son and eldest daughters won't all have to go to work picking vegetables every day in order to get by.

"Sadijah, my youngest daughter, hasn't been able to go to school since we arrived here, as the nearest school is too far away and it's too dangerous [in a tragic twist of fate, Sadijah was knocked down and seriously injured by a car on the busy main road just outside the settlement not long after arriving in Syria 3 years ago. She is still recovering from her injuries]."

"As a mother, it's my job to look after and protect my children", say Khadra.

"It's hard to do that living here like this, but what can we do?
We can't go back to Syria for the time being.

"For now, I just have to try and provide for my family and keep my daughters safe. The money is helping me to do that and I'm grateful for it. I don't know what we would do without it".

*Background*

There are currently almost 1 million registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The UK's support for WFP's Basic Assistance Programme is intended to help 133,000 of the most vulnerable Syrians this year.

Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Firefighter Lindsay Sielski and her specially trained search dog Davey, November 2019 Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Firefighter Lindsay Sielski and her specially trained search dog Davey, pictured at the Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue Service’s purpose-built urban search and rescue training facility near Lincoln, UK, 22 November 2019.

As well as serving her local community in Lancashire, firefighter Lindsay is also the head of the canine unit of the UK Fire & Rescue Service’s International Search & Rescue (ISAR) team.

The ISAR team is made up from Urban Search & Rescue specialist firefighters from across 15 regional UK fire services. Together, they maintain round-the-clock readiness to be deployed overseas at short notice if requested by another country affected by a disaster such as an earthquake, tsunami or hurricane. Dogs like Davey form an integral part of the ISAR team. They are specially trained to search for and locate people who may be trapped under rubble after a disaster, using their incredible sense of smell. The UK ISAR team is funded and supported by UK aid from the Department for International Development. If called on, their deployment is coordinated by DFID on behalf of the UK.