Call for Support for survivors of Indonesia and Myanmar disasters

[Carlos Miranda Levy]

Dear friends and colleagues,

I am writing to invite you and request your support in engaging others in our efforts to provide support and assistance in the recovery efforts of Indonesia and Myanmar after the earthquake and volcano activity (Indonesia) and cyclone.

I plan to leave for Indonesia as soon as possible, may be this week or next week to do field assistance and assess the opportunities for adding value in the field.

As some of you know, I am active in relief initiatives and have been working with Stanford University and support of NUS on our Relief 2.0 model which was tested this January in Haiti and partially in Chile, after the earthquakes on both places.

The main goal of Relief 2.0 is to effectively run the last mile providing relief assistance in an efficient, accountable approach through field independent units which engage local stakeholders and are supported by social networks, mobile telecommunications and an entrepreneurial approach.

There is so much students and people in general can do, not just related to giving small donations, but providing support to those in the field, following-up, distributing requests for need, geo-locating places, communicating survivors, matching stakeholders willing to help with stakeholders and places in the field, etc.

If any of you is interested in helping or can relay this message to others or can assist in getting others involved, please let me know so we can quickly move on that.

Alternatively you can join our:
Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_171454402869202
Google group: http://groups.google.com/group/relief20/
(still working on the proper channel to use)

Regards,

Carlos Miranda Levy
Social Entrepreneur in Residence
National University of Singapore Entrepreneur in Residence

Below is a quick summary of potential areas and introduction to some key considerations for our collaboration work, I just put together (it is limited and might contain errors, etc. as I just wrote it down to include it in this e-mail). There is also more info on Relief 2.0 at: http://www.socinfo.com/relief20/summary and http://www.socinfo.com/relief20/ecosystem


Critical Help in the First Few Weeks

In the first few weeks there is always need for...

• Conventional Relief Assistance:
• emergency and critical medical supplies, food, medical personnel, medical assistance, temporary shelter, tents, volunteers in general, and transportation of those supplies and people.
• Relief 2.0 Assistance:
  
• Tracking assistance requests from the field, geo-locating them, broadcasting, sharing and distributing information on those needs through social networks until they are fulfilled.
• Providing mobile and social network support for units in the field (answering, querying, re-sending SMS messages, re-twitting, etc.).
• Connecting survivors with relatives. Collecting and distributing information on assistance resources available, etc.
• Tele-Medicine. Providing remote support to health personnel in the field by distant skilled physicians.
  
• Who Can Help:  Any student participating on Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter), access to the Internet (Google Maps) and / or speaking any of the local languages.
  

Critical Considerations

• Reincorporation to Normal Life and Resettlement:
• Even from the first few weeks, work needs to be done to reincorporate survivors to normal life and provide them with options and opportunities for becoming productive and generate income for an independent and dignified life. This must always be the focus, vision and underlying motivation of our intervention.
• While survivors camps are inevitable, they must also be perceived as temporary and avoided whenever possible. Efforts put into resettlement and reincorporation can greatly reduce the needs or size of survivors camps.
• Use of Local Workforce, Resources and Stakeholders.
• The number of foreign volunteers required can be greatly reduced by employing local workforce, either as volunteers or paid labor. The money saved in travel and living expenses can cover in excess whatever cost local labor might generate and this is revenue and wealth which stays in the community. This of course creates an empowering effect and a dignifying feeling of engagement and potential for local stakeholders.
• Coordination with Local Stakeholders and Institutions.
• Often, massive international aid displaces and even obliterates local capacity and infrastructure: Health and medical donations can drive pharmacies out of business, field hospitals can drive private clinics and local hospitals out of business, food donations can make it harder for local stores, etc.
• Donations and Aid should be coordinated with local stakeholders, institutions and existing economic infrastructures and distribution channels so they remain the preferred distribution channels. Even if the goods remain as donations, paying them for distribution can be more cost effective than attempting to distribute without such formal channels and we get to preserve and strengthen and even rebuild local channels and economic capacity.
  

Continuing Assistance after the First Few Weeks

• Physical Therapy and Mobility Assistance.
• Those with serious physical injuries need physical therapy, crutches and assistance for following routine exercises.
• Perhaps med students working with engineering students can come up with portable, adjustable, reusable affordable alternatives for such devices.
• Med students, with education students and graphic designers can create graphic instructions for exercises and physical therapy routines for most common injuries recovery.
• Potential Volunteers: Med, engineering and graphic communication students.
• Engaging Activities for People in Survivors Camps.
  
• People in survivor's camps need to get busy.
• Psychology and social science students can work on group activities where people become engaged, motivated and remain physically and mentally active.
• Potential volunteers: Psychology, behavior and social science students.
  
• Capacity Building and Education Units.
  
• Education and capacity building are key.
• It is difficult to ensure attendance or even significant attention span by survivors.
• Creation of self-contained, complete capacity building, applied-knowledge short units which can be completed in one or few sessions and enable them to become productive in practical areas relevant to their environment and current condition is a specific opportunity which can be addressed and where many of us can participate.
• These units must be...
• easy to impart, follow and complete.
• easy and affordable to distribute and reproduce.
  
• engaging, short and with practical value, raising the interest of the people.
• graphically oriented communication and with value for literate and illiterate people.
  
• Some examples might be:
• Social entrepreneurship business ideas and plans. Business creation and growth opportunities in times of crisis. Creative thinking. Creation of water filters. Hygiene basics. Building shelter and basic structures. Collaboration strategies. Basic electric engineering skills: alternative generation of energy, repairs. Basic design, carpentry, construction skills: shelter and basic structures, repairs, etc.
• But also more traditional education units for the younger ones, including math, literacy, geography, etc.
• Potential volunteers: Engineering, education and business students.
   
  
• Entrepreneurial Activity and Creation of Wealth.
• Assistance may flow in the first few weeks, but diminishes quickly as time goes by.
• Solutions and services must be sustainable, and preferably profitable so that those running them can continue to do so and expand.
• Some examples...
• instead of just donating water filters to survivors camps, why not give them to the community under a model where they organize themselves to sell clean water at affordable prices or in exchange for other services or community action. Actually, some filters can go the communities for their own use, some can be distributed to communities for a cooperative business model and some others can go to individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit willing to follow a social business approach to support their communities.
• instead of just teaching, some local stakeholders (those with education background and/or entrepreneurial spirit or teams mixing both) can be supported to establish their own profitable training centers, and take over the responsibility of local capacity building.
• instead of just receiving housing assistance, local stakeholders with construction, business or managerial skills can organize themselves to provide construction, finishing and other construction-related services.
  
• Potential volunteers: Engineering and business students.