National and manmade disasters disrupt people's lives and make them dependant on others. This is particularly severe in the least developed countries often subject to their neighbor's political and racial upheavals. Seldom are such outcomes newsworthy. If assistance is not effective then the problem is compounded through disease and lack of self-sufficiency. There is scope for early engineering participation in this relief work to give safe water, sanitation, and shelter, and so turn refugees to self support. Civil engineers in the United Kingdom have formed a Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief. REDR supplies at short notice (from their normal employment) trained and competent engineers to aid organizations for short term assistance world wide.