WOMEN’S RESILIENCE AT THE TIME OF

DISASTERS

CASE STUDIES ON WOMEN AND DISASTER FROM

MONTSERRAT, SRİ LANKA AND TURKEYZEYNEP BENGÜ

I Introduction The gender-based vulnerability of women to hazard and disaster is well-documented but women’s instrumental and proactive work after disaster is less self-evident.

The capacities of women are a significantly underutilized resource in disaster preparation, mitigation, and response.

Gender relations affect social vulnerabilities. It puts especially women at risk more than men in most cases in disasters. At disaster times, women’s health and safety can be in danger. Throughout the world, women carry the responsabilities of raising children, caring the elderly and the disabled as well as the family’s daily needs.

Women’s traditional roles prevent them to participate in the process of recovery and of mitigation before /during/after disasters.

Women are the agents of change rather than victims of natural disasters. They are cast as “victims” protected and rescued by “vigilant” men, women are in fact, actively present to some degree in every aspect of a disaster.

• Within most societies the subordination of women has been expressed as “natural order” . This ideology is sustained through civil society’s material and institutional structures of the church, school, media, etc in which male dominance is exercised. And this makes women’s participation and contribution invisible.

Women Rebuilding Montserrat

Montserrat was populated by Arawak and Carib native people when it was claimed by Columbus on his second voyage in 1493, naming the island Santa Maria de Montserrat, after the Monastery of Montserrat in Catalunia, Spain. The island fell under English control in 1632.

Between 1632-1634 Irish Catholics from St Kitts colonised the island. 1838 emancipation of slaves.

In July 1995, Montserrat's Soufriere Hills Volcano, dormant for centuries, rumbled to life and began an eruption which eventually buried the island's capital, Plymouth, in more than 12 metres of mud, destroyed its airport and docking facilities, and rendered the southern part of the island (the "exclusion zone") uninhabitable and not safe to travel in.

The southern part of the island was evacuated and visits are severely restricted. Following the destruction of Plymouth, more than half of the population left the island because of the economic disruption and lack of housing.

 

The population of Montserrat is currently estimated at 5,028. This is reduced from 12,000. Plymouth now lies buried under layers of volcanic debris deposited by pyroclastic activity and mudflows.

This caused displacement, trauma and fear for the community. Consequently, this also caused evacuation, relocation, psychosocial counselling and the rebuilding of the structures of the civil society. In this, women played an important role and they were also important in the rehabilitation process.

At the beginning of the crisis, Juliet Brade, an information officer at the government, worked on her own, and was responsible for national disaster operations, ensuring that all disaster committees were set up and functions effectively, that shelters were run well.

Another woman, Rose Willock, who was the manager of the local radio station held the country together by using the radio as a means of social cohesion. During the crisis she managed information through Radio Montserrat. She hosted different guests in her programme to discuss the information based on disaster management. She tried to raise people’s hopes.

During the crisis, women provided food for local consumption, worked voluntarily in the shelters as managers. They persuaded the government to reopen schools. The churchwomen also got involved in social work among the dislocated people. The methodist cleric woman Joan Meade gave spritual and psychological sustenance to those who come to the church. It should be noted that the men ministers had left the island! They probably were sent by the English Methodist Church and jumped ships right after the disaster happened.

 

Family therapist, Clarice Barnes conducted “street counseling” and provided the same services through Radio Montserrat. In this way, she reached a wide audience who was experiencing loss and separation. We can say that Barnes’s work was important for crisis prevention which is a necessary component of disaster mitigation and response.

  A psychologist woman, Carol Tuitt, collaborated with Montserration Christian Council and the local Red Cross to conduct stress management and to reduce anxiety workshops for 120 shelter managers, householders and teachers.

Before the volcano erupted, there was a group called Harris/Streatham Women’s Cooperation (HSWC) which was helping the community in offering trainings such as sewing, fashion designing, baking, tie-dying, etc. But afterwards many women migrated abroad or they went at different shelters. A woman from the Ministry of Agriculture, (cooperative officer) Juliana Meade, assisted voluntarily women in shelters to be organized in cooperatives like HSWC. And many unskilled women had a chance to get the training for useful skills.

Then,Women on the Move (WOM) was born based on the notion that women will be able to rebuild Montserrat if they could rebuild themselves and their families first. WOM was comprised from women who had a different backgrounds and it was organized with non-hierarchical structure. WOM also organized courses in sewing, handicrafts, computer. Some of the women thought that theses trainings eased their depression and helped them to cope with their losses.

The psychosocial aspect of disaster management is also critical since for these people building a new community spirit was important for social cohesion. They said that their intention was to create a “new woman” with self-confidence, and didn’t want to become a disaster affected woman.

The case of Montserrat demonstrates that there is a need of a different approach in disaster management which puts women in the center, alongside with men. Women have to be fully included in all disaster management plans, programmes and policies.

The case of Montserrat showed that the strength, patience, perseverence and resilience of Caribbean women.

Sri Lankan Women's Organisations Responding to post-tsunami Violence

We will be looking at how Sri Lankan women’s organizations respond and reduce the risk of violence against women following the 2004 South Asian tsunami.

The tsunami that hit multiple South Asian countries in 2004 devastated entire coastal areas of Sri Lanka.

The earthquake and resulting tsunami affected many countries in Southeast Asia and beyond, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, the Maldives, Somalia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Seychelles and others. Many other countries, especially Australia and those in Europe, had large numbers of citizens traveling in the region on holiday. Both Sweden and Germany lost over 500 citizens each in the disaster. Sri Lankan authorities report 31,229 confirmed deaths, and 4,093 people missing.

One of the tsunami impacts at that time was the increased level of vulnerability of girls and women to violence. Particularly domestic violence continued in the camps and shelters.

According to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, previous researches have shown that violence against women tends to increase in the aftermath of natural disasters. Yet there are few studies until now, studying especially how women organize to mitigate the impacts of gender-based violence following a disaster.

Several researches noted that men express more their anger and emotional suffering through alcoholism, aggression and violence than women. Women are more prone to vulnerability to violence when social dislocation occurs.

According to United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) poorly designed, gender-insensitive interventions increase the likelihood of violence, by making women vulnerable to assault when accessing basic facilities such as bathing areas or when carrying out daily tasks, including water collection.

 Gender and disaster literature shows that women and community-based women’s organizations display a lot of strength and resilience in coping with natural disasters, and that women collective mobilization and relief efforts at the community level are essential for responding to local needs and promoting effective disaster management strategies. Yet, despite this, the active roles that women play in post-disaster response are often ignored and women are viewed as victims.

During the first week of the crisis, more than 60 women’s organizations formed the Coalition for Assisting Tsunami Affected Women (CATAW). CATAW established a fund to finance the work of its member organizations to protect and promote the rights of women in post-tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation. They visited affected regions and investigated safety issues of women. They reported a lack of security in camps for women and girls. To prevent this they established a monitoring group to investigate and respond to the reports of abuse, giving guidelines about these to camp officials. So more police and army personnel was deployed to the camps.

They tried to improve the conditions in the camps also. For example, separate bathing areas, adequate lighting and sufficient space at the centres. In some cases women’s organizations covered bathing areas themselves. In short, women’s groups raised the awareness regarding the diverse needs of women, including single or pregnant women as well as those from the other disadvantaged groups.

Monitoring, research and information gathering and dissemination were activities in which women’s organizations played a significant role. Surveys and needs assessments by women’s groups supplied data which was lacking from governmental assessments.

Women’s network at local level were formed in several areas in addition to CATAW. The most prominenet of these was the Women’s Coalition for Disaster Management (WCDM). They formed a “Gender Watch” and they met every week to discuss inadequacies and abuses of women’s rights.

 

For example, insensitive distribution of relief was understood to be the cause of conflict between men and women. Since men were selling the items to purchase alcohol. So, the coalition made the officials and camp managers sensitive to these issues. And they also prohibited the sale/use of alcohol inside the camps.

Another women’s organization called Women in Need (WIN) which had several offices in tsunami-affected areas even before the tsunami hit, played an important role in meeting the demands for trauma counseling because there was a shortage in trained counselors in Sri Lanka.

  Awareness-rising initiatives were undertaken by women organizations to promote long term behavioural change and challenge dominant social attitudes to violence. For example, street theatre, songs and other activities portrayed anti-violence messages. These techniques were very creative to reach the community and to raise awareness.

 However, women’s participation in the relief and reconstruction processes was a matter of concern. For example, camp managers were predominantly male, and this meant that little attention was paid to the issues affecting women in a negative way. Therefore, women’s organizations lobbied for the representation of women as camp managers and state officials or service providers.

So, if we look back to Sri Lankan case in overall, women’s organizations played an essential role in managing violence in disaster situations in the mobilization of disaster-struck women.

Secondly, women’s groups created opportunities and alternative spaces for women to assert needs and remedy issues neglected by the relief process. For many women in the community, their involvement with local governance activities and other community members was empowering something that they had never experienced before the tsunami. They developed new skills and self-confidence.  

For these reasons, it can be said that disaster can create opportunities for the transformation of power relations, thus the empowerment of women.

Women’s Organisation and Earthquake Recovery in Turkey

Two earthquakes hit the Marmara region in 1999. It occurred in an urbanized region near to Istanbul. After the earthquake 23 % of the country’s population 47 % of Turkey’s gross national product were affected. 18.000 people died, approximately 50.000 people were injured. 100.000 housing were destroyed and 250.000 housing units received serious to moderate damage.

The Foundation for the Support of Women's Work (FSWW), (In Turkish, Kadın Emeğini Değerlendirme Vakfı, KEDV) founded in 1986, aims to support low-income women's efforts to be economically independent and to improve the quality of their lives in urban and rural communities in Turkey.

In the Marmara region of Turkey, eight Women and Children's Centers were established in a very short time by KEDV, after the Marmara earthquakes destroyed and made thousands of families homeless. Moving from tents to centers in prefabricated settlements, women quickly established systems for collectively caring for their children, distributing relief aid, and for understanding and accessing their entitlements for housing and economic assistance.

During the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase, the KEDV centres moved from temporary to permanent settlements. They became places for different community services and income-generating, saving, housing and governance activities. To ensure the sustainability of child care and other community services, the women's and children's centres are owned by independent organizations of local women groups (cooperatives) with collective businesses. The women also established women's housing cooperatives for house tenants - as opposed to house owners - who were not entitled to replacement housing from the Government after the earthquake.

Between 2001 and 2004, women leaders of KEDV from the cooperatives were involved in learning exchange of experiences with similar disaster-affected women in India (Indian women from areas affected by the 1993 earthquake in Maharashtra State and the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat State) and Iran (the Bam earthquake), and with earthquake and tsunami-affected women from Yogyakarta and Aceh in Indonesia.

The exchanges were sponsored and facilitated by GROOTS International with funds from Ford Foundation.

KEDV became acquainted in 1996 with GROOTS when they participated in the United Nations Habitat Conference in Istanbul and became member of the it. GROOTS, Grassroots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood, is an international network established in 1989, by autonomous local women’s organisations and NGOs working in poor communities around the world.

The local cooperatives that emerged from the tent-based women's and children's centres have continued their work, evolving into sustainable organizations with access to government resources due to the quality services they provide to communities (e.g. pre-school education services).

Some 300 women benefited from the initiative in the initial post-earthquake stage. By 2005, the number of women involved in the women and children's centres had grown to 10,000.  

In order to give a little explanation; the reason the centres were built was that women needed a place to come together , share information and offer mutual support. Consequently, women could play a key role in the relief and recovery processes. They didn’t want to become a disaster victim dependent on outside aid (“dependency syndrom”).

KEDV negotiated with local government and NGOs to identify the best sites for the women's centres. It worked with the Social Services and Child Protection Administration (SHÇEK) to cut through bureaucracy to build and furnish the centres. So that’s how they could obtain the access to space. Four new tents were bought to be used as women’s centres and SHÇEK provided some tents for children, for mobile toilets and cabins for storage and for dormitory space for staff.

Thus in two weeks, the first four Women and Children Centres were set up in the tent cities of Izmit, Gölcük and Adapazarı. Few days later women appropriated the tents as “public living rooms” and work space. They cooked, received guests, held support group sessions, met with journalists, and started making plans for the future.

KEDV negotiated also with other government departments like the Ministry of Tourism to market the products of women in the centres. Women produced toys at the centres. According to the protocol, 300 women produced 750 toys each week. The Ministry purchased these toys from KEDV and marketed them. After 5 months, women shared earnings of 11.000 US$.

More importantly, this project introduced women to the collective production process, helped them to get to know each other better, and plan for future collective initiatives. It also helped women to get over from the trauma they experienced.

As economic recovery was a priority issue for the women, KEDV established a micro-credit programme with a fund worth 1,000,000 USD from the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and began distributing loans to women entrepreneurs in 2002.

Funds were also provided by the Netherlands Organization for International Development Corporation (NOVIB) and the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) to set up eight centres, while the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the ICSC funded and provided technical assistance for income generation activities.

GROOTS International sponsored exchanges between Turkish women and an Indian NGO called Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) and also with women's groups in Iran and Indonesia for mutual sharing of post-earthquake strategies to organize women.

The women organized themselves into groups to conduct surveys in the settlements and visited 9,000 prefab units and analyzed the number of tenants entitled to or ineligible for housing and the services that were needed in the settlements. In some places, the information they gathered contradicted the official data by about 30 per cent.

The women also invited technical staff to help them learn more about earthquake safety. Or even local experts, such as lawyers and developers to explain basic rules regarding issues related to eligibility for government programmes. They undertook repair activities in their communities.

They visited the construction sites of permanent houses and talked to engineers, supervisors, technicians and workers to find out if the new building sites and the construction of new houses were earthquake safe.

As a part of information gathering, they called on local authorities and national government officials to explain the earthquake-safe features of the permanent housing and to learn about business opportunities the government might provide as well as resource allocation for their centres.

They prepared themselves for these visits by gathering information, formulating questions and rehearsing/roleplaying the visits. Finding that the government programmes were only supporting house owners not renters to get replacement housing, the women organized to form their own cooperatives and savings programmes to start exploring housing options for renters.

It was the first time Turkish grassroots women organized themselves and created their own institutional structure. It was also the first time that Turkish women created housing cooperatives. The cooperatives today sustain themselves by accessing public resources. In Düzce Province, a 58-member women's cooperative of house renters (who were not given replacement housing) began constructing housing with its own funds. Through funds received during the relief and recovery phases, the women also initiated microfinance programmes starting with the disbursement of 5,600 loans.

Finally, the project helped position women as disaster recovery experts who can train and support other women in disaster relief and recovery efforts. This women’s initiative has helped build resilience because it creates stronger community networks that are better informed and have linkages and access to local officials and international institutions. This initiative has open spaces for women to be active and productive in a post-disaster situation that can be debilitating and traumatic. The women have created spaces to secure basic services for their communities, support each other, create income-generating activities, and negotiate with officials.

Conclusion Generally in a society, women are respected for their role in the family life, but it should be given respect also when they do trainings in leadership, organisational and survival skills.

  Any disaster management programme which does not focus on women’s role and their contribution to strengthening local and national response capabilities will not be effective. In any emergency situation women are critical.

Although women’s home-based businesses are often destroyed, they tend to be less supported than men in post-disaster phases. They have less access to post-disaster reconstruction initiatives such as jobs, credit programs and facilities. Several studies have pointed out that women’s suffering after disasters has more long-term consequences than men’s.

The local populations should be empowered through awareness raising. And this requires breaking away from old political systems and incorporate the needs of the majority of people. Especially, incorporation of women in disaster research and in policy making would be an important step towards the development of a region.

The central role of women is often overlooked. As important participants to the prevention of disasters, women contribute to rebuilding the damaged environment, building shelter, gathering food and water and tending to the needs of their family and community, as well as mobilising networks. In actual fact, disasters can also provide women with unique opportunities to challenge and change gender discrimination in society.

Thanks...