1. CYCLONE PAM VANUATU

2. WHAT IS A DISASTER?

3. What is a disaster? You don’t bother revising and fail your exams.
Your house burns down but you are fully insured.
You lose everything in a flood. Thousands of people in your area are affected. Local roads and bridges have been swept away.
How often do you hear someone say: ‘That was a complete disaster’? Maybe they burnt the dinner or their football team played badly at the weekend.
As with most things, calling something a disaster depends on a person’s point of view and their experiences. Sometimes things happen that may be a disaster for an individual person, like losing their job or failing an exam. Other disasters are much larger and affect thousands or even millions of people. This assembly is about these large scale disasters.

4. Storms hit England Who helps?
In recent years, storms have often caused flooding and damage across the UK. During the St Jude’s Day storm in October mph winds crossed the UK and four people died, 600,000 people had their electricity cut off and many areas were flooded.
This is not such an unusual event: the photo shows the remains of the bridge across the River Corve in Ludlow that was swept away by floodwater in Many homes were flooded, the gas mains were broken and a man drowned.
Think about what happens when a storm hits the UK. If a storm like this affected you and your family, who would you expect to help? Would you expect Oxfam to help you?
During recent storms, the Fire Brigade, Ambulance Service and Royal Air Force helicopters provided emergency help to stricken communities.
In Ludlow the government built a new bridge across the River Corve at a cost of one million pounds. It took almost two years to build. After the St Jude’s Day storm, insurance companies paid out £500m to repair damaged properties. In the UK we expect and receive support from the government and our insurance companies if a disaster strikes.
Even with this support, any flood is undoubtedly a disaster for families forced to leave their homes and begin the long process of cleaning up.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons. DI Wyman Flood_Damage_-_geograph.org.uk_-_ jpg 

5. Storms hit Vanuatu Who helps?
Now contrast the impact of storms and flooding in a wealthy country like the United Kingdom with storms and flooding in a poorer country like the Vanuatu.
Cyclone Pam swept across the Pacific islands of Vanuatu on Friday 1st March 2015 with sustained winds of 155mph. A storm this severe is vastly more destructive than any extreme weather event experienced in the UK, where short gusts of wind very rarely exceed 100mph.
When disaster like this hits a country like Vanuatu, who would you expect ordinary people to turn to for help?
People in poorer countries have far fewer people they can turn to for help:
Their governments often have less well developed emergency services, so it is more difficult to get help to people who need it. 
Many local emergency workers are also affected by the disaster and may be unable to perform their duties.
Fewer people have insurance or savings, so they don’t have the resources to rebuild their lives after a disaster strikes.
Their governments often lack the resources to invest in schools, healthcare and infrastructure (buildings, roads and power supplies) to help to get the country back on its feet quickly.
More people may rely on locally grown food. Crops, livestock and farming equipment are often destroyed by a storm. This leads to the risk of hunger.
But people are resilient, especially in the Pacific islands where storms and natural disasters are a regular occurrence. People get on with rebuilding their own lives the best they can, but still need support and resources from outside. This is especially true in small, poor and vulnerable countries which don’t have many resources to fall back on.
Photo credit: Philippe Metois/Oxfam

6. CYCLONE PAM
MARCH 2015

7. Where is Vanuatu?
Vanuatu is an archipelago of 83 islands located in the south Pacific Ocean, located 1,090 miles east of Australia. Vanuatu has a total area 4,707 square miles and measures 810 miles from the most northern to the most southern islands. Vanuatu’s total population is 246,000 with the populations of the different islands varying between tens of thousands and less than one hundred. The capital city is Port Vila, on Efate Island, which has a population of 44,000
Vanuatu became independent from British and French rule in 1980, and is a member state of both the Commonwealth of Nations and la Francophonie.
Map credit:

8. This was the scene in Port Vila, the capital city of Vanuatu, on Thursday 12th March The government and people of Vanuatu fully recognise their vulnerability to natural disasters, and work hard to adapt to climate change and prepare for disasters. However there’s only so much a small, poor and vulnerable island nation can do to protect itself against such a destructive storm as Cyclone Pam. Here residents of Port Vila are boarding up properties as the storm approached.
Photo credit: Ben Bohane/Oxfam

9. This photograph shows some of the damage done by Cyclone Pam to houses in Port Vila. 90% of the buildings on Efate Island, where Port Vila is located, have been either damaged or destroyed, and almost half of the country’s population is feared to be homeless. Many people outside the capital city and larger towns live in houses constructed from local materials rather than cement. This makes them much more likely to be destroyed or damaged by a natural disaster.
Photo credit: Isso Nihmei/350.org

10. 75% of Vanuatu’s population rely on subsistence agriculture and fisheries for their food and incomes. In this photograph you can see several fruit trees that have been completely destroyed by Cyclone Pam. Trees like these will take several years to grow back. Across the country the storm brought down fruit and coconut trees, destroyed vegetables, fishing boats and nets and damaged seed stocks and livestock. Isolated communities face a struggle to feed themselves both now and in the longer term.
Photo credit: Isso Nihmei/350.org

11. This photograph shows one of the two water tanks at Lenakal Hospital on Tanna Island. It has been destroyed by Cyclone Pam and the damaged hospital is having to manage with only one water tank. With water supplies severely disrupted and people living out of doors there is an immediate risk of water borne diseases quickly spreading if the lack of clean water, temporary toilets, water purification tablets and hygiene kits is not quickly met.
Notice how many of the trees in the background have been almost completely stripped of their leaves and fruits.
Photo credit: Angus Hohenboken/Oxfam

12. This is a damaged school on Tanna Island
This is a damaged school on Tanna Island. Cyclone Pam hasn’t only destroyed lives. It has wiped out the development gains that the people and the government had worked so hard together to build up. In the words of Vanuatu’s President Baldwin Lonsdale; ‘After all the development that has taken place, all this development has been wiped out.’ In Vanuatu the impact of Cyclone Pam has gone beyond what people can adapt to. The country has to now almost rebuild from scratch. This will require a lot of support from the international community.
Photo credit: Angus Hohenboken/Oxfam

13. WHY ARE SOME DISASTERS WORSE THAN OTHERS?

14. There are many types of disaster
Floods
Weather -related
Droughts
Weather - related
Storms
Weather - related
So far you have heard a lot about Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu.
However, disasters come in many shapes and forms. Encyclopaedias list 13 different types of disaster, but the following are among the most common: floods, droughts, tropical storms (variously called hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons) and earthquakes.
Disasters can be divided into two main groups; weather-related disasters and geological disasters. Storms, floods and droughts belong to the first category. Tsunamis (earthquakes on the seabed), earthquakes and volcanoes belong to the second category. Climate change is having an impact on weather-related disasters but not directly on geological disasters. Highly vulnerable nations, like Vanuatu, often experience both weather-related and geological disasters.
Some disasters are much more difficult than others to predict and guard against, although the monitoring of movements in the Earth’s crust and observing the development of weather systems has greatly improved in recent years. Disasters like an earthquake are sudden and quickly capture people’s attention. Others, like a drought, build up slowly over time and can go almost unnoticed despite many people being affected.
The pictures show flooding in Nepal (2007), drought in Somaliland (2009), storms in Bangladesh (2009) and earthquakes in Pakistan (2005).
Photo credit: Oxfam Words and Pictures
Earthquakes
Geological

15. The impact of a disaster depends on…
The vulnerability of people living in a disaster area.
The resilience of the people affected by a disaster.
Whether governments, people and other organisations are prepared for a disaster.
Disasters can happen almost everywhere, but their scale and impact can vary greatly.
In 1995 an earthquake hit the Japanese city of Kobe. 6,425 people lost their lives and 100,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged. So this was a serious disaster. But Kobe coped and was quickly rebuilt.
Compare this with the Haiti earthquake of An earthquake of similar magnitude left 230,000 dead. 280,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged and six months after the earthquake 98% of the rubble remained uncleared.
Why do you think the impact of similar earthquakes in two different countries was so different?
The impact of a disaster is influenced by:
 the vulnerability of the people living in the disaster area.
 the resilience of the people who are affected by a disaster.
the number of poor people in a country, as poorer people are usually affected worse by a disaster than richer people.
 whether governments, other organisations and ordinary people are prepared for a disaster and have the resources to cope.

16. Vulnerability Carrefour-Feuille, Haiti, before the 2010 earthquake
Many poor people do not have a choice about where they live and many may be forced to live in hillside slums, on low lying coasts or on the floodplain of a river.
This was the community of Carrefour-Feuille, just outside Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince, before the earthquake hit Haiti in 2010.
People who lived here build their homes wherever they could and with whatever materials they got their hands on: they were unlikely or unable to comply with safe building standards.
The community didn’t have roads to provide access for emergency vehicles. If there was electricity, it was likely to be pirated from the public supply. Any water supplies and sanitation would have been rudimentary at best.
Think about how vulnerable the people living on this hillside were to almost any type of disaster – earthquakes, hurricanes or mudslides.
Photo credit: Photo: Diana Hernandez Cordero/Oxfam
Carrefour-Feuille, Haiti, before the 2010 earthquake

17. Resilience A grain store in an area of Tanzania affected by drought
One way of helping people to overcome their vulnerability to disasters is to work with them to build their resilience or strength.
This is a grain store in Tanzania built with Oxfam’s support. It permits the community to store enough grain to last through the dry months of the year when crops do not grow. People here have always lived with drought and have always had to be resilient. But in recent years the droughts have become longer and more severe. New strategies, like the grain store, help people survive the disasters they face.
Photo credit: Geoff Sayer/Oxfam
A grain store in an area of Tanzania affected by drought

18. Being Prepared Inside Lebanon – not going to school
When a disaster strikes people expect their governments and other organisations to help. Getting emergency help to people quickly can mean the difference between life and death.
Even when governments of poorer countries do invest in disaster risk reduction, they may not have the resources to maintain effective emergency services. The massive impact of a storm like Cyclone Pam would be overwhelming for many countries.
When this is the case, the international community - governments, the United Nations agencies and charities like Oxfam - work together to provide humanitarian assistance. This is a photograph taken onboard a Hercules plane taking aid supplies from Australia to Vanuatu.
Photo: Angus Hohenboken/Oxfam
Inside Lebanon –
not going to school
Emergency supplies on board a flight to Vanuatu – 16 March 2015

19. The human impact of a disaster is influenced by…
There is a close relationship between the wealth and resources of a country and its people, and the human impact of a disaster. Countries and people that are richer are usually better prepared to cope with a disaster when it strikes.
For example, in June 2010, the UK went on drought warning after the driest start to the year for 46 years. However, unlike countries in West and East Africa, the UK has the resources to manage a dry spell. Apart from hosepipe bans, most people in the UK do not even notice summer ‘droughts’.
Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons
London, UK
Niamey, Niger
…the wealth and resources of a country’s government and people.

20. Inside Jordan – arriving at the border
The human impact of a disaster is influenced by…
The degree of inequality within even a relatively wealthy country frequently influences the human impact of a disaster.
This photo shows Rio de Janairo in Brazil. In the foreground you can see a poor favela community, with badly-constructed houses packed closely together. Nearby, in the background, are the well-constructed apartment buildings, office blocks and hotels of the rich. The high level of inequality between rich and poor in Brazil can be seen in this photo.
Which area will be affected more severely if a disaster strikes?
If more people were better off and lived in better conditions, would the impact of a disaster be greater or less?
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Rio de Janairo, Brazil
…the degree of inequality within a country.

21. RESPONDING TO DISASTERS

22. Responding to disasters
Humanitarian response: meet people’s basic needs just after a disaster.
Development: rebuild following a disaster.
Building resilience: support people to protect themselves against disasters.
Campaigning: persuade governments to do more to support poor people at risk from disasters.
How do Oxfam and other charities respond to disasters like Cyclone Pam? Most of the response will be led by people living in the country themselves. But countries badly affected by disasters require assistance and support from outside.
There are four levels of response:
Help meet people’s basic needs for clean water, latrines, safe shelter, health care and food. This is called the ‘humanitarian response’.
Rebuild and develop. In the longer term, countries affected by disasters need support to earn money, create jobs and provide basic services for their people. This is called ‘development’.
Build people’s resilience to disasters in the future. When this relates to the impact of climate change it is called ‘adaptation’.
Charities work to persuade governments to do more to support poor people at risk of future disasters. This is called ‘campaigning’. Oxfam is campaigning for an ambitious global climate change agreement in 2015 to deliver climate justice for the Pacific islands and other poor countries affected by climate change.

23. Humanitarian Response
    
When disasters strike, Oxfam specialises in providing water, sanitation and hygiene (called WASH) to the worst-affected people.
The photos show a water tank and latrines Oxfam installed in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010.
The humanitarian needs of the people of Vanuatu, particularly those in the worst hit outlying islands, will take time to precisely assess. However even early in the emergency it is clear that shelter, clean water, food and other essential items are critical. Many people will have lost common household items such as cooking equipment or changes of clothing.
Photo credits: Justine Lesage/Oxfam Quebec, Oxfam Words and Pictures
Water
Sanitation

24. Development A school in Sri Lanka rebuilt following the 2004 Tsunami.
Once the immediate emergency is over, Oxfam and other charities turn their attention to development, helping communities get back on their feet and plan for the future.
For example, initial reports suggest that all the schools, the hospital and the morgue on the main Vanuatu island of Efate have been damaged or destroyed. However development is difficult when countries face the risk of similar natural disasters happening again in the future. In Vanuatu years of development were wiped out in a single day. Human beings cannot prevent earthquakes from occurring or volcanoes from erupting. However the impact of climate change can be managed through reducing carbon emissions and helping poor countries to adapt.
Photo credit: Howard Davies/Oxfam
A school in Sri Lanka rebuilt following the 2004 Tsunami.

25. Building resilience
Part of the process of development is to build people’s resilience against disasters in the future, reducing their vulnerability and adapting to the future risks that climate change and other natural disasters might bring.
One example is this raised toilet in Bangladesh. Oxfam works with local communities who live in areas at risk of flooding to build their houses, toilets and livestock pens on raised earth platforms above flood levels. During floods, water-borne diseases are a severe risk to health, so it is vitally important to avoid the contamination of floodwater by waste from toilets.
Photo: Shehab Uddin / DRIK/ Oxfam GB
A latrine raised above the level of floodwater in Bangladesh

26. Campaigning
Finally, Oxfam campaigns with people to demand that the international community does all it can to reduce the risk of future disasters and to provide adequate support to people affected by disasters.
In 2009, Oxfam brought together millions of people from 36 countries in ‘Climate Hearings’ to testify about how climate change increases the risk of disasters in their lives and to demand action.
It is not possible to say that any one storm is directly caused by climate change. However, the best available climate science indicates that climate change will increase the intensity of storms and climate change does lead to the rising sea levels that make island nations much more vulnerable to disasters.
Climate change is also disrupting agriculture, for example by bringing either more or less rain. This makes growing seasons difficult to predict and makes farming insecure. Increasingly farmers are giving up their land and moving to towns and cities, where they try to make a living. Often they will end up living in shanty towns along the seashore, or in slums in the cities, highly vulnerable to natural disasters.
As Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu, President Baldwin Lonsdale was attending a UN Disaster Risk Reduction conference in Japan.
He said ‘After all the development that has taken place, all this development has been wiped out… We see the level of sea rise … The cyclone seasons, the warm, the rain, all this is affected. This year we have more than in any year … Yes, climate change is contributing to this.’
Photo: Oxfam Words and Pictures
Demanding that rich countries take action on climate change at an Oxfam Climate Hearing.

27. GET INVOLVED

28. Get involved Organise a fundraising event http://bit.ly/1xecfNw
Campaign for change – get Close-up on Climate
So what can you do to get involved, show solidarity and assist people in Vanuatu to be safe, healthy and rebuild their lives?
You can organise a fundraising event. Make it as creative and exciting as you can and provide yourself and your friends with the opportunity to learn new skills as you raise money.
You can learn and campaign with Oxfam to help create a fairer and more just world for everyone. Take part in our exciting film challenge, Close-up on Climate. Make a short film, get it uploaded to the Close-up website, show it to your MP and stand by for news of our exciting schools event in the autumn term
If you’re at secondary school you can become an Oxfam Youth Ambassador. If you’re at primary school, ask your teacher to get in touch with us.
Photo credits: John McLaverty/Oxfam

29. THANK YOU