Post-tsunami ‘Safe house’ initiative

 

In the aftermath of the 26th December 2004 tsunami that hit Aceh Province (Indonesia) in March 2005, DWF was approached to assist the British Red Cross Society in developing a community ‘safe house’ programme. Apart from clearly assisting the long term needs of families who suffered as a result of the tsunami in 2004, this programme provided DWF with an opportunity to evaluate the regional relevance of the skills and strategies developed by DWF in Vietnam.

DWF’s assessment of damage caused by the tsunami clearly showed that lack of application of basic principles of safe earthquake resistant design and construction, combined with poor quality workmanship were major contributory factors in increasing the vulnerability of houses and of their occupants. The DWF programme addressed not only the short term need to ensure good quality reconstruction but more importantly, to develop the conditions in which future building by communities will continue to be done in a safe manner after the NGO supported reconstruction period was over.

Public and special interest group awareness raising about the importance of safe house design and construction, and how this can be achieved used a variety of communication materials, developed initially in English and then in Indonesian.

 Technical materials for capacity building and quality control:

DWF designed the technical information and the structure of training sessions aimed at different beneficiary groups, in particular, local builders who will provide the future capacity in the community to build safely. DWF also recruiting and trained a local team to manage the ‘safe house’ programme after 2006 and beyond.