I put myself in their shoes’ CDAC Network training gets results in Bangladesh cyclone response and sets agendas in South Sudan
Rarely does disaster related training get to be applied so quickly. Chowdhury Rahman had just completed a five day CDAC Network training on communicating with communities in Bangladesh when the coast was struck by Cyclone Roanu. More than half a million people were forced to leave their homes in low lying coastal areas and at least 26 people died.
Chowdhury Rahman, who works for International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies delegation in Bangladesh, was deployed to the affected area. He said “If you ask me one specific thing that helped me from the training, I think that would be my treatment of the community by putting myself in their shoes and treating them with respect and empathy to bring out their inner feelings.”
One of the results of this was a deeper conversation that helped to identify an obvious need for clean water. This was being overlooked because the community had not raised it. It was only through further discussions that he was able to understand they were drinking contaminated water.
This is the kind of result that the CDAC Network ‘foundation training’ is intended to achieve. It may seem odd that the need for clean water is not immediately identified and articulated as a clear need by people and humanitarians all too used to cyclones. But in a context of chaos, lost lives and floods that have swept away housing, boats and livelihoods there may be other issues that come to mind more rapidly in a short exchange. After all, it was not that the communities were without water. It was simply that the water they did have could be a silent killer. Identification of that threat and doing something about it at different levels will, almost certainly, have prevented illness and may have saved lives, particularly amongst babies and the very young.
Recent training on communicating with communities has taken place also in South Sudan. In both countries populations are vulnerable either because of natural disasters, in the case of Bangladesh, or insecurity and conflict in South Sudan. As a result there is long standing involvement of international and national humanitarian bodies. More recently, due to the growing recognition of the importance of reaching out and listening to affected people, Communication with Communities Working Groups have been formed. The CDAC Network worked with these in the two countries as it rolled out workshops with the intention of building a common level of understanding amongst humanitarian staff, so they can better engage with the communities and include them in project design and delivery. The other outcome was to build a cadre of communication with communities champions, reinforcing other initiatives under the umbrella of the UK Aid’s Disaster Emergencies Preparedness Project (DEPP). In total 46 people from more than 40 organisations have so far received the training under this particular programme.
Amongst these in South Sudan are Rose Riungu and Liz Mabior from Grassroots Empowerment &Development Organization (GREDO) who used techniques and approaches to engage communities around the “Day of the African Child” (held on June 16th each year) which this year had the theme ‘Conflict and Crisis in Africa: Protecting all Children’s Rights. As a result of a group of young people performed poetry and dance to share information about child protection with the wider community. Abui John Garang, from Support the Children Organization (SUTCO) said “CwC is a great tool to build confidence, trust, as well as efficient and effective services delivery”. Since the workshop he has helped his organisation by holding a community meeting to help plan their activities. Altogether communication with communities, as one workshop participant put it, is about “the spirit of dialogue”.
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