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Volunteerism is not a new concept in disaster
management. Even in ancient societies, communities
used volunteers to fight fire, control floods and
other disasters. The practice of using volunteers in
disaster management has undergone remarkable changes
and gained global prominence in recent years. This
has been because of the activities of big-time
voluntary organizations such as the
Red Cross Society
and Doctors Without
Borders.
In simple terms, a volunteer is a person who does a
job without being paid for it In other words, any
person who offers to do something without being
forced to do it and without any financial benefit at
the end of the day is a volunteer. There are two
categories of volunteers, local and organized
volunteers.
Local volunteers
are untrained people of a particular hazard or
disaster. They are in most cases non professionals,
but are always ready and available to help in any
form at the scenes of disasters. They are always the
first responders to disaster areas.
Organized volunteers are specialized.
They have primary training in their specialized
field and perform their roles in an organized
fashion during disasters. Most organized volunteers
are trained in first Aid, disaster preparedness and
response, relief, prevention, mitigation,
contingency planning, capacity assessment water and
sanitation etc.
Nigeria has many voluntary organizations including
Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs, and religious
organizations. Some of these include the Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN), Girls Brigade, Boys
Scout, Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic
Church, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Salvation
Army, Islamic Relief Organization, (IRO), Nigerian
Red Cross and many other foundations.
ROLE OF VOLUNTEERS IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT.
Volunteerism is one of the oldest response
mechanisms to disaster situations. During the past
disasters in Nigeria, volunteers played prominent
roles.
In the area of response, the voluntary organizations
provide relief services to people. They mobilize
resources in times of major disasters from their
affiliate institutions. In other words they help in
the coordination of relief efforts in the
performance of mass care functions including health
services, evacuation, distribution of relief
materials, search and rescue operations, prevention
and mitigation.
Health Services:
There are strong volunteer organizations in health
services like the Nigerian Red Cross Society, health
foundations and health NGOs. Most volunteers in this
field are health professionals or others who have
been taught basic health education. In times of
disaster, they aid the sick and wounded, manage
first aid services and assist in the improvement of
health and the prevention of disease and control the
outbreak of epidemics.
Evacuative functions:
In this case, both local and organized volunteers
perform this role but they are coordinated by
disaster professionals because there is the need for
evacuation of lives from disaster-prone environment.
Volunteers help in evacuation of persons from
immediate peril.
Distributive functions:
The volunteers also play this role during
disasters. They assist in food supply and also with
the distribution of household equipment, food, and
materials. They also help in distribution of
information on needs during disasters to avoid
inappropriate donations and supplies.
Search and Rescue
functions: Most voluntary organizations
have emergency units as in the case of Nigerian Red
Cross Society, Divers Association and some religious
organizations. These units mobilize people and other
volunteers that would be involved in search and
rescue activities.
In the area of prevention, Disaster Management
Education is provided. Some voluntary organizations
devote their expertise to the education of people on
disaster management. They organize workshops,
seminars and various education programmes. They also
train fellow volunteers and other stakeholders and
the public on disaster management.
Mitigation: In
this area, there is an increasing trend for
collaborative work in disaster mitigation. These
voluntary organizations tend to engage more on
advocacy and legal support for communities facing
increased risk of disaster because of development
projects and environmental destruction.
Generally, volunteers engage in various social
services in camp situations which include building
of shelters for displaced people, distribution of
food, water and materials, general camp sanitation,
orderliness and security,
CHALLENGES
The use of volunteers in disaster management in
Nigeria is often faced with improper coordination.
There is hardly any legal framework, umbrella, or
regulatory commission that oversees their
activities. NEMA is not solely in charge of this
responsibility but however collaborates with them
during large-scale disasters. Voluntary
organizations and first responders often struggle to
play various professional and non- professional
roles and in the process make the coordination very
difficult.
In most cases, spontaneous, volunteers will come
forward regardless of previous planning. Therefore
with the help of NEMA and other relevant
stakeholders, a way must be determined to redirect
them to more appropriate roles. Similarly, volunteer
disaster management is too often an after thought. A
more structured approach with the help of NEMA
should be provided particularly when hundreds or
thousands of volunteers want to be engaged in any
major disaster.
WHAT IS NEEDED
Advanced planning;
There is need for coordination (before a disaster)
among the government emergency agencies,
stakeholders, voluntary organizations and the
disaster-prone areas. In other words, potential
issues of importance
must be recognized in advance.
Connectivity:
There should be a single link between NEMA,
stakeholders and whoever is managing the volunteer
effort. Building partnership in advance makes
disaster management less problematic.
Training and practices:
Disaster managers should identify
appropriate service roles and conduct training
exercises (several times in a year) in other to help
volunteers of all categories understand job
responsibilities. - There should be a strong
promotion of volunteer affiliation. Education:
Voluntary organizations must increase the awareness
of incidences of disaster and their roles and should
develop strong relationship with government
emergency Agencies.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Following the roles and challenges of
volunteerism analyzed above, the following still
needs to be done:
Planning and preparedness:
Disaster preparedness means proactive activity
undertaken by individuals, families, groups or whole
communities that put the individual, family, group
or community in a better state of readiness. It is
therefore recommended that strong relationships
should be built at the local, state and Federal
levels and to adopt a holistic, unified and national
management structure of volunteer activities.
Response: The volunteer disaster response
period takes place from the moment of occurrence of
an incidence (fire, hurricane, flood, air crash etc)
until the basic emergency, human and community needs
have been met through rescue operations, mass
shelter, mass feeding and overall stabilization of
the disaster affected area.
It is therefore recommended that trust should be
built between established stakeholders, voluntary
organizations and others through a formal
coordinating mechanism. It is also recommended that
the infrastructure for a community system should be
created to ensure that volunteers are part of state
response.
Recovery: The
disaster recovery period follows the disaster
response period and may extend for several years
after a disaster. Disaster recovery relates to
collaborative efforts of multiple individual
volunteers, state, local and federal emergency
agencies with the purpose of re-establishing a sense
of normalcy, development and growth in a community
affected by disaster.
It is therefore recommended that agencies should
collect and disseminate models of using volunteers
in the recovery stage ^and solicit successful local
models for emergency volunteers at recovery stage.
Lastly, inclusion of a wide range of initiatives and
activities at various levels that aim at reducing
the damaging effect of disasters. It is recommended
that disaster education should be incorporated into
prevention and mitigation efforts in order to secure
buy-in voluntary organizations as well as
incorporate it into prevention and mitigation
efforts of volunteers
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