| |
| A
Community Exchange Creates a Disaster Preparedness Task Force |
|
ROSE (Rural Organisation
for Social Education), an organization committed to disaster relief
and empowerment
Communities themselves are best able to prepare themselves
for natural and manmade disasters. This article details the success
story of a village that has managed to do just that. Through a partnership
with the innovative NGO, ROSE, community members in the village
of Vellakoil now know how to help themselves in the face of disaster,
instead of helplessly waiting for somebody else to assist.
Treading Water – The Initial Phase
ROSE is an NGO dedicated to the empowerment of unorganized laborers,
women, children and the aged. It has been working since 1990 in
Pudukkottai District, Tamil Nadu.
When the tsunami struck, a field team from ROSE visited
affected villages and participated in relief efforts. The team was
able to establish relationships with communities in 10 villages
of Nagapattinam district. ROSE also established good relationships
with other relief NGOs working in the area. They provided clothes,
nets and boats and addressed health issues. They work through men’s
and women’s Self-Help Groups and have organized and documented
an extensive collection of herbal remedies that are available in
coastal areas. Throughout their relief efforts, ROSE staff members
worked in close collaboration with other NGOs in the area to prevent
duplication of work, an unproductive phenomenon common in disaster
relief scenarios.
“The relationship between ROSE and the community is unbreakable.
We have become one,” Saya Athappan, Secretary of ROSE.
“(After the tsunami) lots of NGOs came, provided relief materials,
and went back. However, nobody asked what peoples individual problems
and helped solve them. ROSE was different - they understood our
situation and worked according to our need,” Self-Help Group
member.
Community Empowerment Through Disaster Training
When ROSE started working in the village of Vellakoil, staff found
out that community members thought a village task force would be
helpful for them to protect themselves in the face of future natural
disasters. This thinking led them to contact Sangamitra, an NGO
working in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. Sangamitra successfully
demonstrated that if villagers are equipped with information, skills
and resources they can reduce the the impact of disasters on their
own.
When Sangamitra first came to Vellakoil village, they were not sure
about the success of the programme. Sangamitra visited Vellakoil
with a community task force team on October 18th to provide a one-week
training. The visiting team consisted of community members from
a cyclone prone area who were skilled and practiced in disaster
response. They stayed in the village and were hosted by community
members participating in the training. Initially, the Telugu/Tamil
language barrier posed a problem. Lack of clear communication proved
to be demotivating. However, when people began communicating directly,
they realized they had a lot more in common than they thought. Within
two days, translators were pushed aside and relationships between
Telugu speaking trainers and Tamil speaking trainees grew into powerful
friendships.
“This response boosted our confidence and we started working
with the community in a high spirit,” says Vanitha who coordinated
the training activity from Sangamitra.
Not surprisingly, as a direct result of the bonds formed and the
effectiveness of peer learning, the Vellakoil Task Force became
a self-sufficient life-saving group of its own in just one short
week of intensive training.
Vellakoil Task Force
The Vellakkoil Task Force is made up of men and women
linked with Self-Help Groups. There are five groups comprising six
members each, making a total of 30 members. The groups are responsible
for monitoring, preparing and acting in a rescue capacity in the
face of a life-threatening disaster. The structure of the groups
is detailed in the box below.
Task
Force Committees and Roles
Warning
Group (Echerikke Kulu)
· Monitors media sources and uses local knowledge of
weather prediction to assess the threat of imminent danger
· Calls task force to central location to form plan
Rescue
Team (Meepu Kulam)
· Identifies and help most vulnerable
· Gathers important documents
· Brings injured to First Aid camp
First
Aid Group
· Uses first aid skills to treat the injured
· Oversees transportation of injured to hospital
Relief
Group (Nivarana Kulu)
· Sets up toilets in relief camps
· Monitors patient care in hospitals
· Collects local relief materials for community members
· Keeps updated map of village resources and demographic
makeup
Monitoring
and Evaluation Group (Kankanippu Kulu)
· Keeps record of losses
· Oversees equitable and fair distribution of relief
materials
· Addresses community needs to government relief authorities
· Involved in construction mapping and design
· Monitors NGO rehabilitation programs
*All
the groups contribute Rs. 10 per month to the Rescue Mission
Fund. They collect a total of Rs. 300 every month. They are
also planning to collect money locally and open a bank account
to deposit the money for use in the time of emergencies.
|
| Community Response
· “We do a lot of activities. We
learnt how to reduce risk. During the tsunami our village
didn’t lose a single life, we know how to cope,”
says Mr. B. Narasimha Swamy, a Task Force trainer from Andhra
Pradesh.
· “We learnt how to rescue the women
and children,” says Revupurna Chandra Rao, another trainer
from Sangamitra.
· “The community learnt very fast.
They understood the knowledge and skills required. That is
why it is a success,” says Sangamitra coordinator, Vanitha.
· Kuppamanikkam, a task force women
member of ROSE says that when they do the mock drills, they
feel very confident to save the lives and livestock. Through
this exercise, they have overcome the fear of disasters and
have enabled themselves to respond in time.
|
Conclusion
The Task Force shows that a community can reduce the impact of disasters
if people are prepared and trained to deal with such situations.
Peer-to-peer learning through community exchange facilitated by
ROSE and Sangamitra is a shining example of the facilitating role
NGOs can play. Through empowering communities to help themselves,
these organizations demonstrated that the facilitation role NGOs
can play in disaster situations could be even more effective than
the traditional roles of material goods providers. To maintain their
skills and strengthen their abilities to mitigate disasters, there
should be continuous learning & practice among community members
on disaster preparedness.
TOP
| Best
Practices |
Response |
First
Person |
|
Readings
| Community
Profile | News |
|
|
