Risk Wise

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Neighbourhood Disaster Volunteers:

the crucial role of local residents

Barbara Dätwyler Scheuer, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

critical lesson of major disasters – indeed, of worldwide

experience – is that most earthquake victims are rescued

by local residents, neighbours and family members, not

by professionals of the official disaster response system. The

reasons for this are apparent: the official response system

requires some time to mobilize and professional rescue teams

cannot be everywhere at once. Their information on the location

of the injured person is often incomplete, getting access to local

knowledge is a challenge and may take some time. In many cases,

access is restricted. Thus, in the crucial 72-hour period follow-

ing an earthquake during which the survival rate drops

drastically with every passing hour, local residents play a major

role. In the first 24 hours, over 80 per cent of rescues may be

attributed to local residents.

However, local residents are normally ill-prepared for disaster inter-

vention and rescue work. Their effectiveness is seriously constrained

by the lack of knowledge and skills, organization, and essential rescue

equipment. Poorly prepared rescuers may even cause unnecessary

injury to disaster victims and themselves. Furthermore, when profes-

sional teams do arrive on the scene, there is no clear basis for their

collaboration with the spontaneous local volunteers.

This analysis of the potential and weaknesses of disaster volunteers

underlies the concept of the Neighbourhood Disaster Volunteer

approach (NDV), which was initiated in Kocaeli Province with Swiss

Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) support in the after-

math of the 1999 Marmara earthquakes in Turkey. In

particular, the approach recognizes that the effectiveness

and sustainability of disaster volunteers depends on their

organization into neighbourhood-based groups. The

NDV approach embodies four working principles:

• Through appropriate training, organization and

equipment, the immediate response capacity of

NDVs can be significantly increased and maintained

over the long term

• Thanks to their organizational structure, NDVs may

be readily coordinated by the professional teams as

soon as these professionals arrive; the capacities,

equipment and local knowledge of the NDVs may

significantly enhance the effectiveness of the official

response system

• As local residents, neighbourhood volunteers can

have a significant impact on the state of awareness

and preparedness of the community at large by

conducting schools programmes, identifying specific

risks in the locality, providing leadership in damage

mitigation and assisting with recovery measures and

the return to normality after the disaster

• Finally, the tasks of training and supporting the neigh-

bourhood disaster volunteers may be managed to a

large extent by the volunteer network itself once it has

evolved into a self-sustaining civil society organization.

Appropriate training and equipment can increase the response

capacity of Neighbourhood Disaster Volunteers

Image: Neighbourhood Disaster Volunteer Foundation MAG

With the support of SDC, the Neighbourhood Disaster Volunteer approach prepares

local residents for rescue work

Image: Neighbourhood Disaster Volunteer Foundation MAG