Volunteers in disaster response are not only crucial in the beginning, as they work to help people get their lives back together, but they are also essential if there is to be a healthful and successful long-term recovery.
When a disaster strikes, volunteers from the affected area respond immediately in heroic ways. When a section of Interstate Highway 880 collapsed in the 1989 earthquake in northern California, the residents of Oakland risked their own lives rescuing victims trapped by fallen slabs of concrete. This rescue work went on even in the midst of repeated aftershocks.
In a crisis, the adrenaline flows. Miraculous—often superhuman—deeds are done. Then reality begins to set in. People begin to realize what has happened. They begin to understand what the losses will mean to them. It takes only a few short days for the signs of grief to appear. The early post-disaster euphoria begins to turn into a time of denial, followed by frustration, disillusionment, and anger, and ending in depression.
When people become victims of a disaster, they suffer from the realization that they have lost control. People who pride themselves on having made their own way in the world suddenly find themselves dependent on others for their most basic needs. Many times they cannot return to their homes or their jobs. Sometimes they cannot even return to their communities. Most have never before had to ask for help. Now they are thrust into a never-before-experienced world in which they have to apply for assistance, filling out forms and waiting in line. When they telephone for information or advice, they are repeatedly put on hold. All the while, they are trying to think of ways to make themselves and their families safe and secure. Their circumstances force them to face a bewildering number of decisions at a time when they are least able emotionally to think things through.
Those of us who work in disaster response for the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) have a saying that we follow in a very strict way: The people in the community must own their own disaster. In most disasters, the people of the community are the earliest responders. The police departments, firefighters, paramedics and other emergency workers, church leaders, public officials, and ordinary citizens are all there before, during, and usually after the disaster.
By its very nature, a disaster is an event that causes human suffering and need which its victims cannot handle without assistance. Still, it is essential that the victims of disasters begin to take ownership for their own recovery as soon as possible. Recovery is dependent upon their regaining the sense of control that they lost when disaster struck.
The use of volunteers that respond from within the stricken community allows local ownership of the disaster to begin. In most cases, however, members of the community soon realize that their needs far exceed their own time and ability to care for themselves. They are victims. This is where mission volunteers are needed.
As volunteers from the outside, those of us who work with UMCOR in disaster response do not come to a disaster site to create dependency but to provide relief, support, and guidance. Our role as outside volunteers is to give disaster victims a lift that can, for a time, relieve them of overwhelming burdens. We bring the victims hope and a feeling that others care. We provide an atmosphere in which God's healing power can be released.
In a disaster, many governmental and relief agencies offer their services. But the church has a unique role to play. Its central purpose is to offer the multifaceted ministry of Christ. This includes dealing with theological, physical, emotional, and advocacy issues as well as providing certain social services. The aim of the church's efforts is to reconnect and strengthen relationships between individuals and their God, their families, and their communities.
The United Methodist Church is uniquely situated to respond to disasters because we have churches (mission stations) in every county and in almost every town and village across the United States. We also have a worldwide Methodist connection with annual conferences, central conferences, and autonomous partner churches on five continents. Most of the time, even before the area bishop or the annual conference officials contact the UMCOR disaster-response office, the UMCOR network manager is on the phone trying to ascertain the damage and offering to give assistance to affected communities.
Within the first 12 hours after a disaster strikes, the UMCOR network manager is in contact with one of the 45 specially trained UMCOR Volunteer Consultants, asking the consultant to be prepared to travel to the disaster site. At present, there are only two full-time staff people and three part-time paid staff members who work with UMCOR on disaster response. All the other UMCOR workers are volunteers.
The concept of an Early Response Team has come out of a new alliance between United Methodist Volunteers In Mission (UMVIM) and UMCOR. To put this concept into action, each United Methodist annual conference is being asked to form a conference team of early responders. Special training is a must and is provided for potential Early Response Team members. It takes detailed preparation to know what to take into the early stages of a disaster—what things can be done and what tasks need to be left undone. Otherwise, well-intentioned people might disqualify victims from further help that may be available. Safety for the Early Response Team and for the victims is always a primary concern.
Each annual conference will be looking for individuals and groups that would like to prepare themselves for early-response mission work. If you are interested, contact your jurisdictional UMVIM coordinators and they will help arrange training for you. In most disasters, work teams are needed to do everything from removing debris, to offering care for children, to helping rebuild. Timing is an important factor. Only the leadership on the scene can determine when help is needed and what the nature of the help will be.
Calling UMCOR's national Volunteer Hotline is always essential (1-800-918-3100). When you call, you can expect to be asked your name; whether or not you are a part of a volunteer group, the size of your group, and the skills group members possess; your available dates; and how you or your group can be contacted. In return you will be sent a packet on the preparations you or your group should make.
The call to come into the disaster area will come from the conference-level Disaster Response Team on the scene. The conference disaster-response coordinator will decide on the appropriateness of inviting volunteer teams into the area. This judgment will be based on the nature of the work that can be done at various stages, the ease or difficulty of travel within the affected area, and whether the local leadership can manage the oversight of your work team. Patience and understanding are needed at this point on the part of volunteers.
UMVIM and UMCOR are able to train volunteers in a wide range of skills that are needed in disaster-response work. We commonly think of volunteers tackling heavy jobs such as debris removal, mudding out (use of pressure sprayers to remove mud and dirt), and rebuilding. These tasks are important and are certainly needed. But there are many other services that can be offered by the volunteer.
Both UMCOR and UMVIM have developed training methods for each of the areas mentioned above. Twice a year, UMCOR holds an academy at its Sager-Brown Center and Depot in Baldwin, Louisiana. The academy is a training experience for conference leaders and for members of the Catastrophic Disaster Response Team, which operates at the national and international level. Annual conferences are urged to send representatives from their area to the academy for training--either in meeting disasters in their own communities or in becoming part of national teams sent to communities in crisis around the world. If you are interested, contact your conference disaster-response coordinator or council director to see if you might be included in an academy training session.
Training in any of the needed areas can also be scheduled for local teams within conferences by contacting the UMCOR office in Washington, DC (202-548-4002). UMVIM personnel also provide training for tasks within their areas of expertise. Contact your conference or jurisdictional UMVIM coordinator to find out when the next training opportunity will be or how your conference can hold a training session. A list of jurisdictional UMVIM offices is included in the November - December edition of New World Outlook in the centerfold brochure.
Dr. Donald L. Weaver, retired United Methodist pastor and former district superintendent of the Western New York Conference, has been a volunteer for disaster-response ministries for 20 years. He is part of the UMCOR Catastrophic Disaster Response Team. Barbara Weaver is a Christian Education coordinator and author of the curriculum used for children who have been in disaster situations. She has led workshops throughout the United States, Japan, and Bosnia.
Text and photographs copyright 1999 by New World Outlook: The Mission Magazine of The United Methodist Church. Used by Permission. Visit New World Outlook Online at http://gbgm-umc.org/nwo/.
For reprint permission, contact New World Outlook by E-mail at nwo@gbgm-umc.org.
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