Friday, October 2, 2009 7:13pm
I am still en-route to Samoa. I just arrived into Auckland, NZ. It’s always great to be back in NZ – even though this is just for a 10 hour layover.
I head to Samoa overnight. It is absolutely imperative that we get our reconstruction and relief strategies well thought out.
Over the medium to longer term it is very clear what SPBD’s role is. We will help micro-entrepreneurs relaunch their businesses. We will help the now homeless to rebuild their homes. In short we will help to rebuild the local economy and to re-empower the families that have been devastated by this tsunami to get control over their lives once again.
In the immediate/short term the strategy is less clear. It depends upon the local immediate need. My first goal upon arriving is to begin to establish a clear assessment of what is most desperately needed and where can SPBD / MicroDreams add the biggest value.
Clear immediate needs are: 1) finding and burying the dead. 2)ensuring that all have clean dry clothing, 3) ensuring that all have adequate clean safe drinking water and food, 4) ensuring that all have safe and adequate temporary accommodations. We will have to quickly devise SPBD’s specific strategy in response to each of theses needs.
One lesson that has been learned from the SE Asian tsunami of a few years ago is that it is very important to quickly move beyond relief and to get people working once again in a productive manner so that they are then able to propel the devastated society forward through their own efforts. Volunteers and aid efforts can never match the ability and efforts of a well mobilized self interested local society.
SPBD can play a big role in facilitating this transition.
A couple of ideas that I am thinking of are:
1) How can we re-establish local micro-entrepreneurs that can begin to very quickly provide the much needed food, drinking water, clothing and shelter to their local villages? This would make the recovery sustainable and that is something that I think is very important.
2) How can we get cash into the hands of local villagers while achieving some very basic relief goals. One idea is to organize groups of villagers to work on important relief projects and to pay them each a reasonable wage at the end of each day. This helps to achieve important relief objectives while also getting cash back into the local economy so that people can then begin to get their families back up on their feet through their own efforts.
While I am mapping out the strategy, we are also moving forward and cementing some important partnerships. Mercy Corps in the USA is proving to be a very helpful partner. The FDC in Australia has offered to provide us with some experienced guidance. And we are now in discussions with the NFL who may also be able to provide us with some very critical and much needed financial and moral support.
Thanks to all who are writing to me. I am sorry that I cant respond to all individually. I’ll try my best to keep all posted as we move forwarded.
If you are keen to help support our effort financially, you can do so by visiting us at either www.spbd.ws or www.microdreams.org. Any and all amounts are very helpful.
All the best,
Greg