Farida Akhter
Whenever a disaster occurs, most people’s first reaction is to want to help. One doesn’t have to look far to find many examples of humanitarian relief efforts undertaken by the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund. In fact, PWRDF was founded in response to a disaster which took place in Springhill, NS in 1958. Since that time, Anglicans in Canada have responded generously to disasters around the world- most particularly the 2004 Tsunami and the 2010 Haitian earthquake.
When word of a disaster gets out, people often respond immediately through donations, and many wish to do more, looking for ways to express their solidarity with those affected. A few weeks after the disaster, questions often begin to come to the PWRDF offices, asking what has happened, and how their money is being used.
I recently sat down with Farida Akhter, executive director of Policy Research for Development Alternative (UBINIG) and PWRDF Board member. (Look for te audio link below to listen to the interview.) Ms. Akhter lives in Bangladesh, and spoke to me about the way partners on the ground respond when a disaster occurs. She specifically talked about the response that UBINIG undertook with PWRDF support when Cyclone Sidr occurred in 2007. She talked about four stages of emergency response: relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction, and sustainable development.
Naba Gurung, PWRDF’s Humanitarian Response Coordinator, agrees with Akhter. “Relief is about ensuring immediate survival, rehabilitation is about getting the affected communities back on their feet, reconstruction is about re-building infrastructure, and sustainable development includes helping communities to prepare for future emergencies,” he said.
Relief
Immediately after the disaster occurs, relief work starts. Ms. Akhter recalls that, while Sidr knocked out power where she lived, she very quickly started hearing about the much more serious consequences to the south. “We just thought of doing something. We immediately started calling people up to give food or water. We called up some people we knew in that area [to ask] what they would need. They said ‘we need water- drinking water,’” she recalled.
Relief work involves providing the immediate needs of food, clean water, clothing, temporary shelter, medical help, and recovery work to find survivors of the disaster. It seems obvious that these are the needs, but even when dealing with the obvious, Akhter talked to the people who were affected. It is vital to talk to the people who are in need in order to discover what their key needs are.
PWRDF always works through partners in the communities where we are assisting after a disaster strikes. This allows us to find out what the immediate needs are in the community, and to make sure that those are being met. After the earthquake hit Haiti, we worked with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), who are both members with PWRDF in Action by Churches Together (ACT) Alliance and were working in Haiti already.
Sometimes the immediate relief needs aren’t as obvious to us. This is another reason to talk to the people who have been affected by the disaster- they know what needs they have that are less obvious to those of us living in the Global North. Akhter reminds us, “Animals also need help: cows and goats. When you talk to the affected people, they will also ask for help for their livestock.” In most parts of the world, people’s animals represent sources of food and income, as well as wealth and status in their communities.
Rehabilitation
The second stage of response is rehabilitation- making it safe for people to live in the area again. “Houses were broken, people were under the sky…. they need rehabilitation immediately,” Akhter says.
Rehabilitation involves more than just re-building houses. Damaged structures need to be removed. In the case of Sidr, huge trees had destroyed or damaged many homes as they fell. Those trees needed to be removed. Much work is going on in Haiti to remove rubble from destroyed buildings. Buildings which are still standing need to be examined to ensure that they are safe.
Rehabilitation also involves ensuring a constant supply of food and water, access to necessary health facilities, and support for re-starting livelihoods. This support often takes the form of providing the required equipment for them to do their jobs: fishing communities need nets or boats; farming communities might need plows and seed. Akhter emphasized that “you really have to be specific and concrete to meet the needs of the people who are affected.”
Reconstruction
While rehabilitation deals with the needs of individual families, reconstruction deals with the needs of the communities and the country. Akhter said, “The roads are also broken, so you cannot go there. And the schools are also broken.”
This has been extremely evident in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. “100 of the 254 schools run by the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti were damaged or destroyed in the quake,” Gurung reported. Roads have been almost impassable. The airport had no coordination after the earthquake, forcing the US military to take over operations there. PWRDF is working with the Diocese to help re-open schools in Haiti.
Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is not so much a stage as it is an approach. Every facet of responding to a disaster should be undertaken through the lens of sustainable development. Akhter was adamant about this: “In all these things, you have to have the concept of development… you have to think about long term sustainable development which will start *immediately* after the cyclone.”
She went on to say, “You have to think the sustainable development in the context of their livelihood… many organizations are going there and making a fisherman a tailor. They do not want that.” PWRDF is careful to ensure that we are working with the affected people in all facets of the disaster response, and working to ensure sustainable development throughout the process.
Gurung visited Haiti two months after the quake, and talked about his experience of working with local people to discern the needs of the community. “We also visited a camp in Petite Riviere, in Leogane region, where we met with about 40 youth leaders, who were to elect an executive committee responsible for developing a new community centre for local children, youth and young adults. It was very encouraging to have witnessed community led processes which helped to make decisions about beneficiaries, distributions, camp management and future rehabilitation projects.”
Ms. Akhter also highlighted PWRDF’s strength in working with local communities to meet their needs after Cyclone Sidr. “All the money that we got [from PWRDF] we could give it to the fishing community, which was the worst affected and was totally ignored by the other NGOs. The way they were praying- thanking God- after receiving the support. We felt like crying. We were overwhelmed by their joy…”
PWRDF will continue to respond when emergencies occur around the world. We will respond through relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction. We will respond through sustainable development. And we will always work with our partners and with those who have been affected by the disaster!