INTRO | HIGHLIGHTS | FEATURES | PHOTO STORIES | FOCUS | INTERVIEWS | PERSPECTIVES | BIOS
Faith-based disaster
risk reduction
Disaster management and humanitarian intervention can
be affected by religious interpretations of disasters and the
faith of local communities who are in need of aid and other
forms of assistance. They can also affect how the disaster
itself is managed and how aid is distributed.
Since community preparation is key to
mitigating disasters, religious communities
and faith-based NGOs are likely to
continue to play an important role in their
aftermath and in reducing the damages
caused by disasters in the future. Religious
identity and faith not only mediate how
people perceive a disaster, but may also
encourage them to prepare and build
resilience.
Infrastructure that is vulnerable to disaster (such as school
buildings) is in many cases already maintained by faith
communities.4 Similar to other public buildings, churches,
mosques and temples are used for shelter when disaster
strikes. Therefore a possible solution for enhancing aid
efforts would be to work with faith-based communities to
ensure that they have in place the best possible strategy for
reducing disaster risk. The hazards can of course occur in
some less developed countries more than others, but bearing
in mind the religious faith of communities may better assist
practitioners in social work, medicine and other fields in
helping them to prepare in advance.
‘Faith communities have a role in providing post-disaster
assistance and in proactive risk reduction. Some aspects of
religious practice such as gender inequality or preferential
treatment in providing post-disaster assistance are limitations,
but can be lived with as long as faith communities are seen
as only one of many channels for disaster response and
recovery,’ says Dr Ben Wisner, a disaster expert based at
Oberlin College (USA) and University College London, who
has worked with faith-based communities in disaster risk
reduction and planning.
people to plan for disaster. The NGO contacted Islamic
teachers and scholars who produced video and other outreach
materials for people who previously thought there was nothing
that could be done about disaster risk. ‘This collaboration
with Islamic leaders freed local people from ‘fatalism’ and got
them working proactively to reduce disaster risk’, says Wisner.
Cultivating resilience
The influence of religion in interpreting disaster
is common to many cultures throughout the world, but
especially where humanitarian intervention is most needed.
Since much of the aid received by disaster-affected countries
originates outside of the cultural context in which the
disaster has taken place, the methods for delivering aid
across national and cultural boundaries may be limited in
practice. There are also moral challenges to overcome for
disaster intervention, especially if religious views prevent or
hamper assistance coming from outside. Yet working within
communities by taking into account their religious beliefs
and YX\