Listen to Locals, Red Cross Tells Aid Agencies

This article by Sonny Inbaraj speaks to the power and resilience of human beings to withstand famines and other natural disasters. The article suggests that relief agencies can learn a lot from those suffering. In many cases local people responding to a crisis are adept and effective in their own recovery efforts.

Inbaraj describes one experience of Bekele Geleta, (who heads the South-east Asia regional delegation of the International Federation of The Red Cross) who witnessed a group's ability to respond effectivly in the face of a disaster. The situation included a nomadic tribe, living on minimal food rations, who sold a portion of their food at the market so that they could restock their animals. They reasoned that international assistance would not last forever and that they would be better off initiating the first steps to take steps to take care of themselves. Geleta sees this experience as a "lesson" because as he says "often there is need for better consultation with the people affected in any disaster because they know best what is better for them."

The 'World Disasters Report' released by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies around the world calls on the humanitarian community "to re-orientate their aid towards strengthening the resilience of people who are in the frontline of disasters." The Report goes on to say "we have seen clearly that disaster-affected people are not all helpless victims and we really need to work hard to collectively dispel that myth." Further, international humanitarian organisations which provide emergency relief aid must strive to take into consideration community-based appraisal methods.

The Report cites another example of local resilience in the face of disaster. In December 2003, a massive earth quake destroyed 85 percent of the Iranian city of Bam and killed approximately 30,000 people. Iranian Red Crescent rescue teams were deployed within minutes and saved 157 lives with 10 dogs. At the international level, within two days, "34 international search and rescue teams from 27 countries, complete with sniffer dogs and remote sensing equipment, flew into the almost flattened city and saved 22 lives."