- Know what you are dealing with. Do not stereotype disasters. Impacts of disasters depend on the magnitude of the event, local infrastructures, economy and the general social and community situations. There is no single duplication of disaster; therefore there is no duplication of solution. Every disaster is unique.
- Immediately SET UP an effective SOP/procedures in Communication, Coordination and Decision Making. BNPB (Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana) or BPBD (Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah) is the main responsible actor for this by law.
- COORDINATE Needs Assessment. People like to reinvent the wheel; many needs assessment in such chaos situation produced unreliable landscape of information, unnecessary surveys, and yet overlapped assistances.
- INFORM donors correctly about the actual needs. It is also important to inform donor things that are NOT WANTED of NEEDED. We often overlooked this point. Try to work with the donors and do not let the donors to compete each other in providing the assistances. It is always better to wait until genuine needs have been assessed.
- Humanitarian assistances should be COMPLEMENTING, not DUPLICATING the available assistance or REDUCE local capacities in meeting their needs. DO NO HARM.
- Work with LOCAL RESOURCES as partner if possible. At some points it will leverage the sustainability of your works. It is WRONG to assume that the affected population is too shocked or helpless to survive. However, the impacts of the disaster will last for a long time.
- Be PERSISTENT, TRANSPARENT, THOUGHTFUL and ACCOUNTABLE for everything that you do (I know that your mom probably said something about this also).
PLEASE DON’T:
- Send used clothes, toys, blankets, etc.
- Send short-life ready to eat food (nasi bungkus).
- Send Household/General medicines without a strict quality control and approval from appropriate institutions.
- Send political party clowns, Member of Parliament jokers or any other morons. They are a REAL disaster. One disaster at a time is just too many.
Good luck!
PS: Most of the above words are based on my own meandering years of experiences in humanitarian assistances. Your discretion is advised.
