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WITHDRAWN Engaging at Community Level in Haiti and the Dominican Republic

Description: 

WITHDRAWN GeoHazards International (GHI) works to increase resilience to earthquakes, natural hazards and climate change in under-resourced communities, continually learning over the last 30+ years since our founding. We developed ethical and effective approaches cultivating local ownership for long-term impact. GHI’s “The Way We Work” tenets highlight some of these facets, including working alongside local leaders and professionals, focusing on strengthening local capacities, considering social context with the complexities and opportunities that it may bring forth, cultivating trust by having GHI’s local staff invest in community relationships, and having our in-country staff be the voice and champions advancing long-term resilience efforts in their own communities. Local staff are best placed to guide organizational efforts within their regions, making initiatives more effective and locally appropriate.

As an example, GHI carried out a series of synergistic projects in which major activities were designed and led by local staff. Community-level and youth-focused programs prepared communities in Haiti and the Dominican Republic for earthquakes, tsunamis, and related hazards within a multi-hazard context. In Haiti, GHI built on our earlier work following the 2021 earthquake, with local staff who understood local needs. We met some immediate needs, collected damage data with community members through a unique partnership with researchers, provided technical assistance, and eventually trained builders along with constructing an earthquake- and hurricane-resistant school. In Cap-Haitien, our local staff conducted the first Haitian-led, full-scale tsunami simulation exercise involving thousands of people, multiple schools, and numerous local partners. As part of this, the team brought in civil protection from other parts of Haiti to spread knowledge and improved training and coordination of first responders. The team repeated this successful exercise a year later. We continue to implement our local team’s ideas to build resilience, including youth club programs in Haiti and preparedness workshops in the Dominican Republic.

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Presenting Author: Garmalia

Student Presenter: No

Invited Presentation: Yes

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