From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

4 RISK AND VULNERABILITY NATURAL DISASTERthey would have fled to higher ground, rather than rush to collect thefish left flapping on the suddenly exposed sea floor. More broadly, riskreduction overlaps with social protection schemes, which can reducevulnerability to shocks and can also be rapidly expanded after a shockto allow communities to recover as quickly as possible.Poor communities and civil society organisations can also takepre-emptive action to greatly reduce vulnerability. The fruits of such‘community disaster preparedness’ were seen in April 2007, whenflash floods and mudslides due to heavy rains and snowmelts sweptacross large areas of northern Afghanistan. Unlike many devastatedcommunities, the village of Dari-Souf Payan in Samangan sufferedonly a single casualty and limited damage to property.The seeds of preparedness had been planted less than six monthsearlier in a South–South exchange of ideas. In January 2007, theBangladeshi NGO BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee)had initiated a community-based disaster risk reduction programme(CBDRR) in the village. BRAC trained a total of 30 facilitators fromthe community (20 women and ten men) to work with groups of 50families each, establishing Village Disaster Management Units withseparate committees for women and men, in keeping with culturalnorms and to ensure that women’s concerns were voiced.In April, when the heavy rains commenced, committee memberswent to each house to discuss the impending floods and the need tomove to higher ground. After the floods, with BRAC’s support, thecommittees mobilised the community to dig out the irrigation channels,to enable floodwaters to drain away and life to return to normal assoon as possible. 89Cuba is perhaps the most renowned exponent of communitybaseddisaster preparedness, as a neighbourhood representative fromthe Cuban Women’s Federation in Havana explainsI am responsible for this part of the neighbourhood. If a hurricanehits, I know that inside one multi-family unit is an old woman in awheelchair, who is going to need help to leave. I have 11 singlemothers on second and third floors of apartment buildings withchildren under two, who will need more support to evacuate andspecial needs in the shelters. I have two pregnant women, one onthat block and one on this one, who will need special attention. 90251