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Progress report
Relief International's earthquake recovery
program in Bam By Zohre Elahian
March 15, 2003
iranian.com
This report is based on my second trip
to Iran from Feb 16th to March 2nd and is a follow-up to my first
report dated February
6th, which covered the visit of January 22nd to February 3rd. These
visits follow a request from Relief
International's CEO, Dr. Farshad
Rastegar, that and RI Board member serve as the eyes and ears for
the thousands
of private, corporate and foundation donors who have provided over
$2 million for RI's recovery program. I took on this role with
pleasure given my native Farsi language and went to Iran for the
first time in 26 years... My second trip to Bam was positive and
productive. Below is summary of what has been achieved to-date.
1) We have started our permanent housing program
in the two villages of Esphikan and Poushtrood. We shifted our
project strategy from
coverage of most vulnerable families in 19 villages to coverage
of all families (600 family in Esphikan and 460 in Poushtrood)
in these two villages. These two villages are the largest of
the 19 and those with the highest ratio of damage >>> See construction
photos
After our
assessment
it was deemed that 95% of the inhabitants of these two villages
were in the most vulnerable category. By brining life back
to all the families we will be bringing life back to the community
as
whole. The process is cumbersome as different steps needed
to
be taken prior to construction in earthquake-affected areas
including the removal of rubble. To generate local cash flow,
RI is hiring
the villagers themselves as labor.
Today RI is the lead NGO in the shelter sector.
It is to the credit of RI to have focused on this sector as the
main
area
of need even
when the focus of the media and the public was on short-term
delivery of relief items. RI correctly identified shelter
as the area where
international organizations could have the most value-added
role.
Today, it is clear that no sector is more of a priority
than
shelter. RI's lead in the sector has been acknowledged
not just in
terms of scale but also in its methodology. Instead
of a turnkey operation, RI has advocated a community-based approach
with
the beneficiaries involved in the planning, design
and
implementation
process. This not only reduces costs but also by involving
the
beneficiaries improves their mental health. The beneficiaries
are no longer powerless and sitting in tents waiting
for handouts. They are instead active and take charge of their
own livelihoods
with external assistance.
RI's approach has now been
adopted by all NGOs working in the shelter sector as the standard
model.
While our main concentration is permanent housing
we have been responsive to other needs as we find
gaps
on the ground.
Fortunately,
as an NGO we do not face much bureaucracy and can
be flexible to respond immediately to real needs
that
are hard to ignore.
Our
extra activities are divided into two sectors,
Public Facilities and Social Services:
2) Provision of Public Service Facilities for the
homeless who have taken refuge in the tented
camps. Compared
to the villagers
where RI is building shelters, these are populations
from the city itself whose houses are likely
to take 2-3 years
to be
rebuilt due to the need to reconstruct the city
infrastructure. Therefore
it is deemed appropriate to make some investment
in remedying their
immediate needs. In focusing on Public Service
Facilities RI's inputs reach everyone on the
camps while utilizing
RI's existing
construction capacity on the ground to meet needs
in the non-shelter sector. These inputs are ongoing
and
to-date
have included:
a) Construction of 2 clinics in Sina (population
of 2500) and Wahdat (population of 2000) camps.
b) Construction of 1 school (%90 of all schools
are destroyed) in Sina camp.
c) Construction of 8 latrines with water
basins in Sina camp.
3) Social Services:
Here the focus has been on meeting immediate
needs of more particular groups and individuals
that
may otherwise
have
fallen through
the cracks. RI's inputs are to ensure
that immediate needs are met until more permanent
solutions
are set in place.
These interventions
have included:
a) Clothing and Food: Purchase and distribution
of clothing, shoes, milk and biscuits
for 200 children including a
large number of
orphaned children in the Wahdat camp.
b) Women's Programs: Initiated and
facilitate a weekly meeting for women
in Sina camp. An average of 75
women gather in
a tent provided by RI and a discussion
is facilitated by RI's
volunteers
to focus on their needs. Real focus
is placed on
solutions. RI arranges for representatives
of other organizations
to attend these meetings to respond
to the needs of the women.
For example,
UNICEF's
representative attended the meeting
and heard directly from the
women about their needs for themselves
and their children. In cases
where RI can respond
directly
we have done
that. For example
when
one woman asked for a sewing
machine in order to provide clothing for
all her family
members
and
for others
in the camp RI purchased
the sewing machine the next day
and delivered it to her tent.
c) Small libraries: RI purchase
of 1,000 books for ages of
7 to 14 and
is starting
four tented
libraries
in the
four
main camps.
This is an extremely popular
program and we hope to expand it
to the smaller camps and even
to the villages.
Accommodations of RI Staff: RI staff decided from day one
to stay in tents. RI has
one tent
office and
2 tents
to sleep
in. This
has helped
us to
have first
hand experience of life in
Bam. It has encouraged us to act fast
and
respond to real needs
as they are identified
while
we live
with the beneficiaries.
I
would like to commend RI's staff
for this approach where
they do not make
a distinction between themselves
and those in
need. This is
also reflected in how
the staff treats the beneficiaries
with dignity and respect
and not as those in power with
resources that give them extraordinary
powers
over
peoples lives.
Next Steps: At the time of such a disaster
where everything has
been vanished there
is also good opportunity
to introduce
new programs with
high impact.
Below are some programs
that RI has identified
as meeting
gaps
that we
would hope to
start in the next
few weeks.
a) Establishing a Computer
Center with access
to Internet in school
that we
have constructed
and
making it accessible
to
the community.
We'll plan to expand
this to other communities.
b) Starting related programs at the Computer
Centers
with focus
on health
education,
income generation,
English language
training,
etc.
c) Initiating a
Micro Credit
program for
women.
d) Expand the
library project
to other
camps and all
the 19 villages.
e) Building
of Public
Service Facilities
(schools
and clinics) in
the
villages
being reconstructed
as needed
(average
cost of $25,000
per 4 room
school or
clinic). I am leaving on March
12th to Bam. We
have internet
through a landline
on RI's
office
tent in Bam
I am gladly available
on
zohre@ri.org in Bam or on the
following cell
phone (98 -912
2055 952) to answer any
questions or provide
more detail.
I would like to
thank everyone
of the thousands
who has
helped with
donations
to make this
program a
success in meeting
real needs on the
ground >>> See construction
photos
Author
Zohre Elahian is a board member of Relief International.
.................... Spam?! Khalaas! *
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