GOOD

INTENTIONS

WITHOUT

CRITICAL

THINKING

CREATE

DISASTERS.BY ROBIN LOW

DISASTERS EVERYWHERE

2 Earthquakes & 3+ Hurricanes + Fire (Sept 2017)

MOST COMMON “HELP”

1) Facebook Likes

2) Thought and prayers

3) Donations

4) Volunteer

5) Virgil / Solidarity

…

Fundraising, etc.

How effective is it?

DEFINE HELP

Help is any form of assistance.-- Wikipedia

WHY DO WE HELP?

• Religion?

• Branding?

• Good Intentions?

• Guilt?

POPULAR FORM OF

HELP: DONATIONS

Individuals and business like to help by

donating money.

Some donate a certain portion of profits

while others a certain amount every regular

interval.

This is a minimal form of helping and one

of the most common form.

NEPAL EARTHQUAKE

Twin Earthquakes 7.8 and 7.3 magnitude

About 9,000 people killed

650,000 families displaced

600,000 homes destroyed beyond repair

DONATIONS

Nepal received USD$4.1 billion from

International Communities and World

Bank.

Guess what is progress at the 1 year

anniversary?

REAL IMPACT IN

NEPAL IN MAY 2016

Some construction on infrastructure

started.

Some rebuilding on UNESCO sites.

Number of homes rebuilt =

0

PROBLEMS IN NEPAL

• Political indecision (Nepal

Reconstruction Agency)

• Unofficial Blockade on Indian border

• Politicians are PUSHING OF BLAME

• Survivors are WAITING FOR HELP

RESULTS

• People died from exposure from

environment.

• People displaced living in tents

• Farmers living in tents on their

farms, reduced income and food.

• Jobs lost (no Fuel)

• Unequal distribution of support.

MANY PEOPLE WANT TO

HELP, FEW KNOW HOW

Everyone thinks helping is easy.

Most do it out of convenience.

Does anything think about the impact of

their deeds?

Some help out of pity, and they get angry

when they see the recipients have a nice

meal or buy something nice.

COMMON HELP MISTAKES IN

DISASTERS

1) Bottled Water

100,000 liters of bottled water – 40,000 people a day

Cost + Logistics $50,000

Cost for NGO with Filter to purify 100,000 of water - $300

NO PLASTIC WASTE!

COMMON HELP MISTAKES IN

DISASTERS

2) Canned Food

…

List goes on.

COMMON HELP MISTAKES IN

DISASTERS

Clothes and Toys

NGOs do not have the capacity to provide

“non-essential” aid.

Most clothes and toys WILL be wasted as it

will be improperly stored and create a

health hazard.

COMMON HELP MISTAKES IN

DISASTERS

Many International NGOs spend in the

country the money is donated to buy

supplies, and this means that businesses

in the disaster areas are excluded.

People in charge are not on site and

bureaucracy prevents them from reacting

to changes or identifying gaps on the field.

CURSE OF

EXCLUSION OF

LOCALS IN

DISASTER RELIEF

AND RECOVERY

CAN’T HAITIANS

DRIVE?

Haiti Earthquake 2010

Food donation & delivery.

Trucks of Aid to Port-au-Prince.

5 year old saw the Dominican driver

and asked, “Can’t Hatians Drive?”

AID AND TRADITIONAL

NONPROFITS ARE UNABLE

TO GENERATE

SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC

ACTIVITY.

Most organizations choose to

deal with immediate needs of

displaced people during an

“emergency” period

Almost NONE think of how to

integrate the survivors into

existing political and economic

systems.

Both skilled and unskilled labor

supply go under utilized because

of POLICIES.

Transforming Survivors into

refugees.

When you volunteer and cook for

disaster survivors in a shelter,

have you thought about asking if

there are professional chefs or

cooks who would do a better job?

Are you making them feel

helpless?

Is helping any help?

Not really…At least not in the way we are doing it…

Often when we help…

We make life decisions for

those we are helping.

Often when we help…

We fail to see the whole pictureand feel content to help.

Often when we help…

We search the approach most efficient to us not to those we are trying to help.

Often when we help…

We destroy the very same environment we are trying to help.

Often when we help…

we displace local capacity.

Often when we help…

we measure our success by the delivery of help or completion of actions not

actual impact.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DISASTER STRIKES IS AN UNFORTUNATE TWIST OF FATE.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTERWARDS IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY…

When disaster strikes…

Some people are given a burden:

The burden of enduring the disaster and the conditions that follow

When disaster strikes…

Some people are given a gift:

The gift of being sparedfrom disaster.

How can we not use our

gift to lift the burden of

others?

Disaster Response Lies…

• Only experts can help.

• You will be a burden in the field.

• We don’t need anything, we have all we need.

• Do not send clothes or food, send money.

We all can respond…

• And guarantee an efficient response…

• Donate Action, not money, not words…

• But how?

Disaster Response Basics:You can be useful in the field if…

• Bring your own supplies and food to the field.

– Or buy them locally if possible.

• Engage the local stakeholders and work for them, with them.

• Are connected.

• Have independent mobility.

• Listen, learn, respect.

Relief 2.0 (what is it?)

• A focus on running the last mile in disaster relief

• through independent units of local stakeholders and foreign volunteers in the field

• supported by mobile technologies and social networks

• to fill the gaps created by bureaucracy and slow response from top-down hierarchies.

Relief 2.0 (how does it work?)

• Individuals and organizations report incidents, needs and requests from the field using their mobile phones and the Internet.

Relief 2.0 (how does it work?)

• These incidents are reviewed, verified, completed, enhanced and their information spread to others

by individuals and groups on social networks

– Housewives, youngsters, volunteers, anyone.

until they are addressed, solved or matched

with someone who takes care of it.

Relief 2.0 (the last mile)

• Small independent units then complete the cycle by actually addressing those issues and delivering the response required and supported by the social network.

When disaster strikes…The social infrastructure remains, people’s capacity is untouched…

What appears to be random or chaosis neither…

There is order, social structure…

There is people,like you and me, willing and able.

Who are the people who survive disaster?

Disasters create survivors,they don’t create refugees.

It is the conventional relief system what turns survivors into refugees.

Disasters do not destroy knowledge or capacity

Teachers are still teachers, doctors are still doctors, nurses are still nurses, carpenters are still carpenters…

DANGERS OF SOCIAL

INTERVENTION

Making life decisions for those we are

helping

Is there “Over Helping?”

REFUGEE CAMP

IN EUROPE

40 volunteers per 100 refugee…

Refugees don’t need to cook,

clean or even do laundry…

Is this what we want?

ARE YOU HELPING?

Should you do nothing?

Should you support status quo?

SO THEN

WHAT

CAN WE DO?

NEVER HELP

ENGAGE, ENABLE,

EMPOWER & CONNECT

POOR PEOPLE ARE

NOT STUPID

SOCIAL INNOVATION

The point is, everyone can contribute.

Not just with money, not just doing

little tasks with no real impact.

We have innovative ideas, knowledge

and skills to solve complex problems.

There are interesting projects near

you or you can gather friends to work

on something you care about.

There are so many new

problems happening

everyday.

Complaining does not solve

problems, protesting does not

solve problems.

There is only so much the

government or NGOs can do.

Being big and bureaucratic

allows them access to

resources, but they are slow

to respond to changes.

We need innovation and

people to take actions and

accountability.

The crisis is not a crisis of

resources. It is a crisis of

imagination. When the plight

of humans is approached as a

crisis of resources, the natural

response is to produce

handouts.

For some, it means creating

businesses that address those

needs, and developing

plausible pathways to scale

those businesses so that

solutions stretch to the scale

of the challenge.

Then it is to look at how we

can support these businesses.

The solutions to the problems

the world face are complex

and getting to this solutions is

not an easy task.

There is definitely a solution

out there.

Let us not just engage in quick

fixes and follow status quo.

Let us not believe it is not our

problem and that we cannot make

a difference.

Let us engage the benificiaries

and think about the impact of our

actions.

Perhaps this is your

PURPOSE in this world – to

solve problems, not just to

eat, sleep and work.

After all, we all live on the

same planet.

LETS CONNECT

https://www.facebook.com/socialhub