28 June 2005

Within 24 hours after the 26 December tsunamis devastated lives and destroyed communities throughout south and south-east Asia, UN Volunteers from India with expertise in disaster response arrived in the affected countries to support the coordination of relief efforts. They organized aid for the injured and displaced, assessed damage, and disseminated information to donors, relief agencies and media. UN Volunteer Deepa Thachapilly was one of the first specialists in emergency health management to arrive in the Maldives, sharing her expertise in disease prevention to help reduce the risks of water-borne diseases and other infections that spread easily in post-disaster environments. As part of the Government of India’s Disaster Risk Management (DRM) programme, an ongoing initiative since 2000 with support from UNDP/UNV India, UN Volunteers like Deepa raise awareness on disaster preparedness at the grassroots level. More than 400 UN Volunteers have been involved in the programme working with residents, local and regional officials and NGOs to better equip them to respond in the wake of disaster. As a result of this initiative, community preparedness initiatives are now in place in 17 states. In Indonesia’s Aceh province, mobilizing and involving local volunteers in the rehabilitation of their communities has been at the core of the work of UN Volunteers Vera Yuliana of Indonesia and Cristina Herrero of Spain. Linking up with Australian engineers, they organized ‘on-the-job’ training for teams of local volunteers to safely unclog sewages and drains, clear debris and clean hospitals and schools. Creating opportunities for youth to also contribute, the UNV team partnered with a national youth organization to open a volunteer-run counselling and information centre for victims in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province.

When UNV called for assistance in dealing with the tsunami disaster, the Governments of Japan, Germany and the Czech Republic were the first to respond, providing close to US$ 8 million for immediate initiatives and long-term rehabilitation projects. From the private sector, the Dubai-based Emirates Airlines launched a campaign in early 2005 enabling its frequent flyer customers to donate their air miles to fly UN Volunteers to the affected areas. And volunteers through UNV’s Online Volunteering service pitched in to help the Internet-based NGO, Global Hand, update its resource page to assist companies send supplies to the devastated communities.

The need to capture best practices and share information on DRM is the driving force behind a regional strategy being developed by UNV and the UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR). Building on the success of India’s DRM programme, UNV and BCPR held a workshop in India in October 2004 to set in motion a regional network of UN Volunteers with expertise in this area. Once in place, the network will enable UN Volunteers from India to travel to other countries in the region to train communities on disaster preparedness at the local level. This initiative is part of UNV’s Tsunami Response Framework, in collaboration with BCPR and UNDP country offices in the region.