Rebuilding Sustainable Communities with Vulnerable Populations after the Cameras Have Gone: A Worldwide Study
This volume focuses on the status of the elderly and the disabled after disasters globally as well as the challenges of post-earthquake rebuilding in Haiti.
The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has estimated that between 1987 and 2007, about 26 million older people were affected each year by natural disasters alone and that this figure could more than double by 2050 due to the rapidly changing demographics of ageing. People with disabilities (physical, medical, sensory or cognitive) are equally at risk of utter neglect during and after disasters. The Australian Agency for International Development estimates that 650 million people across the world have a disability and about 80 per cent of them live in developing countries.
Similarly, before the January 2010 earthquake, Haiti was a “country with tremendous development needs and numerous impediments to development,” according to Congresswoman Maxine Waters when introducing a Resolution in the US House of Representatives to cancel Haiti’s debts in March 2007. These impediments included an overwhelming burden of international debt; lack of personal and community assets; and, very little or no internal and external capacities, all of which have been exacerbated by the aftermath of the earthquake.
It was against this background that the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters at the University of Massachusetts Boston organized two international Conferences in 2010 – in April, on Rebuilding Sustainable Communities in Haiti in the wake of the January Earthquake; and, in July, on Rebuilding Sustainable Communities with the Elderly and Disabled People after Disasters.
This edited book consists of selected papers that were presented at these academic events. The topics include Disaster Experiences of the Elderly and the Disabled in Nigeria; The Vulnerability of Elderly People in the Aftermath of Earthquakes in Iran; Methods for Assessing and Developing Understanding of Resiliency in Communities; The Tuareg’s traditional Shelter for Disaster Mitigation and Reconstruction in Libya; and, People with Disabilities in Haiti Before and After the 2010 Earthquake.
This book is part of a series. View the full series, "Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters", here.
Adenrele Awotona is the Director of the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA. He was a Director of Studies for the British Council International Seminars (Reconstruction after disasters) in the United Kingdom. His publications include Rebuilding Sustainable Communities for Children and their Families after Disasters: A Global Survey (edited, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010) and Rebuilding Sustainable Communities in Iraq: Policies, Programs and International Perspectives (edited, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008).
"All the contributions in [the Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters] series have the potential to enhance our knowledge in the mechanisms of handling disasters, and our future preparedness. The four books, taken together, will also enhance international ability to deal with future disasters so that communities can be rebuilt with as little pain as possible to the most vulnerable members of the communities. The four books are highly recommended to bureaucrats and policy makers around the globe, especially civil servants working with international organizations, like the United Nations, in anticipation of future disasters. As an academician myself, I would strongly recommend the books to my colleagues in the social and economic sciences departments and other related academic disciplines."
Pade Badru Professor and former Chair, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Savannah State University
"I strongly recommend this book to researchers, professionals, managers and everyone who are potential victims of disasters and who have to create awareness, understanding and actions in emergency planning and response."
Gülsün Sağlamer Professor of Architecture and Former Rector, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey; Former Chair of the European Council of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP).
"This book will make a very-much-needed contribution to the analysis and procurement of resources needed when catastrophes occur. You may be aware that the Minister for Overseas Development in the UK recently bewailed inadequacies in swiftly bringing international resources to bear when major calamities happen. Chapters in this book highlight such problems and address solutions. It should therefore be an important guide to governments and resource providers worldwide for appropriate action in the face of unforeseeable major disasters. [...] In addition, the text will make clear definitions of social vulnerability. This is an area exercising the minds of many governments around the world. In Britain in 2011 we saw reactions to the economic climate; but the picture has become confused as various politicians give their slant on public disorder. Chapters in this book should help to clarify the situations and behaviours of people who are most vulnerable. Through this one might hope that Governments will more sensibly be guided in finding a response which permanently and sympathetically ameliorates the situation for many people. [...] Professor Awotona is an expert in the fields this book addresses, and has worked for many years with others in attempting to find permanent solutions in physical form as well as in social relationships, to lift the lot of the worst effected by natural disasters and poor governmental administration."
William Frank Hill Professor of Architecture (retired), Surrey, United Kingdom.
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