LWF
Field Programmes: Asian Zone Emergency &
Environment Co-Operation Network (AZEECON)
January/FEBRUARY
2002 Number 20
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Contents:
- Earthquake/
Earthquake Day
- New
LWF/WS Strategy stresses disaster preparedness,risk
management
- Recent,
planned AZEECON activities
- Partner
developments; NCA, ALWS, CWS Pakistan
-
DIPECHO Press release
-
Institutional Preparedness
- A
Case Study on Tool of Mass Simulation Exercises
Earthquake
Preparedness
This Update goes out on Nepal's
national Earthquake Safety Day (15th January) marking
the last major earthquake to strike the Kathmandu Valley
in 1934. January was also when major earthquakes struck
in Gujerat, India and El Salvador - beware. Earthquakes
of this magnitude strike in Kathmandu, on average every
75 years, next time an estimated 40,000 dead and 95,000
injured are projected, with more than 560% of buildings
destroyed and 900,000 rendered homeless.
Nepal's National Society for Earthquake
Technology believes that, with concerted effort, Nepal
can be made quake resistant by 2020, a major challenge
for disaster preparedness. Earthquake Safety Day has
been gaining in recognition and importance since it
commenced 4 years ago. LWF Nepal plays an active role
in this event. I encountered CARE staff from other countries
in the region sponsored to visit Nepal only for this
event - now's that's a rich organisation.
New LWF/World
Service Strategy stresses Disaster Preparedness/Risk
Management
The
recently developed Strategic Plan 2002-2006 for LWF/World
Service, to which several AZEECON members made significant
contributions, gives renewed emphasis to issues of disaster
preparedness linked with development, the central theme
of AZEECON.
For
Strategic Goal 1.1: Increase the ability of World Service
to timely and effectively respond to the basic needs
of disaster victims while strengthening their mitigation,
preparedness and recovery capacity. Subgoal 1.1.1: WS
will have appropriate mechanisms for preparing staff,
communities and partners in all aspects of risk management.
The first two Strategic Approaches identified are Emergency
Response and Preparedness, and Risk Management.
There is, therefore, now
a stronger policy justification, both in country and
at regional level, for an expanded and focused World
Service involvement in the broad field of disaster preparedness
and related work.
AZEECON
Activities: To Date and Planned
The launch of the one-year DIPECHO
Project began in November. As with most EU-supported
ventures, we also experienced some uncertainty as answers
to critical questions were awaited. However, the project
is now underway with disaster preparedness activities
proceeding in each of the three countries. Regional
level activities, with the exception of a single exchange
visit, have yet to commence. Allan Duelund Jensen, of
DCA in Dhaka, is keeping us well informed on EU requirements
and hugging what actions are needed.
LWF India hosted a successful exchange
visit and workshop, to Calcutta and Orissa in November
2001 under the ongoing AZEECON programme at which seven
AZEECON members participated.
Supplementary AZEECON visits:
- a training in presentation and
PowerPoint, organised by LWF Nepal was held in late
October 2001 and included five senior staff from RDRS.
Effective presentations are increasingly important
in all areas of work. Right now in Nepal, a PowerPoint
presentation on earthquakes in running at the LWF
Nepal exhibition stand, and will continue for 5 days.
- In response to a request from
BRP, a visit of technical/accounts staff (logistics,
stores, accounts) to RDRS is planned for the first
week of March 2002. A more technically-oriented programme
has been designed, and no workshop or seminar is planned
at present. Other AZEECON Members are welcome to nominate
staff to participate.
Otherwise, the next regular AZEECON
staff exposure/training visit is scheduled for Nepal
in March/April. No firm dates are fixed but this will
probably be late April. The intention is to hold a full
SPHERE training in conjunction with the visit. To this
end, a senior staff member from LWF Nepal has been nominated
(not yet accepted) for ToT training in Australia, along
with Neville Pradhan, LWF/WS Secretary for Emergencies
based in Geneva.
Later AZEECON staff exposure/training
visits are to Bangladesh in July, Cambodia in September.
The customised training is still planned for July.
At the forthcoming LWF Asia Regional
Meeting scheduled for Rangpur for 20-24th May, the opportunity
to present, and discuss AZEECON should also be taken
in the programme.
Several DIPECHO Project regional
tasks have yet to be arranged, including
- Review-cum-evaluation,
facilitation of common/individual DP strategies:
Finalisation of ToR; Identify/appoint consultant
(suggestions welcomed)
- Customised training (planned
for NBI Bangladesh, June 2002): design of subject
matter and identification/arrangement of resource
persons
- Website upgrading (LWF
Nepal/RDRS)
Partner
Organisation Developments
NCA Regional office (Bangalore)
is making progress with its ambitious web-based disaster
database, initially focused on the most vulnerable India
states and intended to provide comprehensive information
in the event of disaster and response. Once tested,
the intention is to extend this to Bangladesh and Nepal,
but this is not likely to be before 2003.
NCA Proposals for relief-restocking
projects for all the LWF programmes in South Asia were
unfortunately not accepted this year (though applications
for CASA and CCDB succeeded). There is hope for next
year.
Australian Lutheran World Service,
which currently support the Nepal and Cambodia programmes,
as well as relief work in India, has indicated interest
in supporting AZEECON. They are already meeting significant
costs of the SPHERE ToT training (above), if candidates
are accepted.
ALWS Director Peter Schirmer made
the following comments in a recent email: "A closer
ALWS/AZEECON linkage was in fact partly behind my thinking
to provide AUD 5,000 to help meet the cost of Neville
and Tulasi's attendance at the ToT training in Australia.
It has seemed an obvious connection given our geographic
location, and support to Nepal and Cambodia. So I'd
be happy to discuss future cooperation, not only financial
(which could only ever be modest), but in other ways
such as keeping AZEECON appraised of relevant training
opportunities in Australia (an organisation called RedR
has a regular emergencies training program), identifying
people who could provide short-term assistance for specific
tasks, and provide support to the individual programs
outside of the AZEECON structure (eg I know you had
raised the issue of lack of English skills, particularly
in reports, which is an area where we have the potential
to assist).
It is an opportune time to look
at this more closely because our funding commitments
under the PCFA expire at the end of 2002, so, during
the course of this year, probably in August, our Board
will sign off on funding commitments for a further three
year period commencing 2003. It means, though, that
a formal proposal will need to be prepared for their
consideration - which makes the visit in May (including
the LWF Regional Meeting) even more timely".
This is encouraging if this initiative
is going to continue but will require collecting any
ideas and inputs either ahead of or during the regional
meeting.
The suggestion has also been made to LWR to consider
a similar regional support, but no follow-up received.
In terms
of different type of partner, contact has been made
with Church World Service in Pakistan (working there
for the past 54 years). They are a leading organisation
in disaster preparedness and capacity-building. Both
in the ACT Mission to Pakistan and the ACT regional
meeting in Bangalore, they expressed some interest
in links with AZEECON and other regional networks.
I hope to make some further contact with them, and
perhaps others will also be in touch. What do you
feel about widening our network to non-LWF-related
organisation?
DIPECHO,
as seen by the EC
The following press release (from
July 2001), outlines how the European Commission portrays
the current 1-year round regional disaster preparedness
project:
Commission allocates €3.2
million for disaster prevention + preparedness programmes
in South Asia
Brussels, 26 July 2001 Commission
allocates €3.2 million for disaster prevention
and preparedness programmes in South Asia. The European
Commission has earmarked €3.2 to implement a disaster
preparedness + prevention plan in South Asia, covering
projects in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and
Pakistan. This region is particularly affected by natural
disasters such as floods, landslides and earthquakes.
The programme is being launched by the Humanitarian
Aid Office (ECHO) under the authority of Commissioner
Poul Nielson.
The action plan launched by ECHO
focuses on the promotion and initiation of short-term
preparedness activities at local and regional level.
This first Action Plan will target flooding, earthquakes
and landslides as the main hazards in the region. The
activities will be carried out through ECHO's European
partners linked through the Asian Disaster Preparedness
Centre (ADPC). Regional level projects encouraging co-operation
and co-ordination of disaster preparedness activities
as well as the dissemination and exchange of knowledge
and expertise in disaster preparedness will be carried
out. Training activities targeting the whole population,
especially encouraging the participation of women, will
be the focal point at local and community level.
Furthermore, ECHO funding will
allow the installation of early warning systems. The
combination of disaster preparedness training and early
warning systems, as well as the strengthening of regional
structures, is designed to help reduce the impact of
natural disasters in South Asia significantly. ECHO
has been funding disaster preparedness projects throughout
the developing world since 1994. In 1998 the programme
was extended to South Asia, a region particularly vulnerable
to natural disasters. Since then ECHO has financed projects
in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Pakistan
for a total of almost €2 million.
Institutional
disaster preparedness
Do AZEECON programmes practise
what they preach? If major natural disaster strikes,
is the organisation, the staff based in the central
and field offices know how to deal with it. It occurs
to us our organisation and staff may be more capable
in facilitating and training community-based organisations
rather than knowing what to do when they are directly
affected. No standard plan is possible (given the range
of disasters) but some basic steps - all staff knowing
how to respond, who to contact, as well as certain preparations.
In Nepal, with the statistical probability of earthquake
looming. we have been reviewing institutional preparedness
and trying to take some simple measures, which may be
critical. Do any others have simple plans for the organisation/office
and office staff themselves?
A Case Study
on local level disaster preparedness training in India:
Red Cross Assam: the Tool of Mass Simulation Exercises
by
Fernando Soares and Patrick Fuller
The scene of a landslide is simulated;
and volunteers from Assam state of the Indian Red Cross
practice evacuating casualties, made to look realistic
with fake blood. Then there is a visit to the local
zoo to learn to identify poisonous snakes. This is all
part of a two-week training course on health and disaster
preparedness, to prepare volunteers how to respond when
disasters strike.
Attention to detail for the full-day
simulation exercise is meticulous. An earthquake has
triggered a landslide in a remote suburb of Guwahati
in Assam State. Participants role-play both victims
and helpers. An earthquake victim is stretchered out
from a pile of rubble, clutching a mound of sheep's
intestines to his stomach. His bloodied body is testimony
to the remarkable skills of the Red Cross make up artist
who has used a mixture of flour, water and liquid vitamin
C to create a gruesome but realistic scene. Other characters
such as the TV crew - or the Red Cross ambulance transporting
the injured to a fully-equipped field hospital, all
add flavour to the high-adrenaline exercise.
The students take everything seriously,
and all actions are recorded on video and played in
class afterwards. In a region where disasters strike
in an amazing frequency, simulation exercises can be
one the best ways to prepare volunteers to deal with
the raw reality of a calamity. .
The "mass casualty exercise"
was a highlight of the Federation and Indian Red Cross
training programme for volunteers in Assam. It has been
developed as one component of the Federation's assistance
programme following the devastating floods that struck
the region in summer 2000. The Indian Red Cross, assisted
by the Federation, is training 300 Red Cross volunteers,
community health workers and traditional birth attendants
on first aid, mother and child care, reproductive health,
sanitation, nutrition, infectious diseases and various
disaster management techniques. The participants come
from over 20 different districts of Assam to attend
a two week training course.
"The idea is to give volunteers
some basic training in aspects of community-based health
care while at the same time imparting skills that enable
volunteers to prepare for and respond to disasters.
After the training they can return to their communities
and teach others" . The training programme has
been designed as a combination of lectures, practical
demonstrations, simulation exercises, field visits,
group work and discussions, all of which have proved
to be very popular among the students. One session even
involves a trip to the local zoo where the students
become familiar with poisonous snakes. During the floods,
snakebites cause a high number of fatalities and the
students learn how to identify certain varieties and
how to treat snake bites.
The students are also taught how
to compose songs and prepare low-cost posters as part
of a broader public information and health education
strategy. "Every year the floods cause us long-term
suffering and I really believe that the knowledge we
have gained can help us to overcome our misery,"
says Ajit Buragohain, an enthusiastic volunteer from
Demaji, a districts scarred by flash floods in August
2000.
Mrs Renuka Barkataki, Secretary
of the Assam State branch of the Indian Red Cross commented.
"The volunteers have shown real commitment and
we now have to ensure that this programme becomes sustainable
in the long term because disasters are an annual event
in Assam." The aim of having one trained first
aider in each Assamese family
In the last day's closing closing
ceremony participants are given certificates, a first
aid kit and encouragement. Volunteers get to know each
other and new friendships are formed, narrowing the
gap between isolated communities that face very similar
problems but hardly hear from each other. New training
initiatives are springing up in remote areas of Assam,
initiated by inspired volunteers eager to share their
new skills with others from their community.
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Any news, ideas, other input
greatly appreciated.
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