Dear readers and the ADN community,
Welcome to our second newsletter for the Avoidable Deaths Network (ADN). ADN is a global membership network, dedicated to finding theoretical and practical solutions to reducing deaths from disasters.
Our first newsletter was published in December 2019 and we have received positive feedback from our readers. We have featured a few comments from our readers in this newsletter.
We released the ‘ADN Bulletin on Coronavirus’ in April 2020, when we were living through the national lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, we launched the Repository of COVID-19 Information resource page, an art project on Hope, and a collaborative research project on ‘Avoidable Deaths from the Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown in India’. These projects have been ongoing, and we are pleased to share some of the images from our art project on Hope in this newsletter (please find below the winning image created by Arianna and Arisha Virik).
We are releasing this newsletter when some of us are experiencing the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and localised lockdowns. The year 2020 has been one of the most trying times for humanity. Concurrent disasters (such as the forest fires in Australia and the US and the floods in Bangladesh and Uganda), national lockdowns, loss of jobs and loss of loved ones – among other challenges – have been most unprecedented. During this trying time, the ADN members have been busier than ever.
The ADN’s Regional Coordinator in India, Mr Dillip Pattanaik, and the Regional Coordinators in Bangladesh, Mr Shahidul Hoque and Dr Edris Alam have been providing aid and assistance to the most vulnerable population during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. ADN’s Knowledge Exchange Officer, Mr Jos Bal has been coordinating healthcare organisations for COVID-19 in the Zuid-Holland Zuid Safety Region in the Netherlands. ADN’s Regional Coordinator in Kenya, Mr Samuel Akera has been in Khartoum coordinating the UNDP emergency response for the triple crises brought about by the economic fall-out from COVID-19 coupled with the political crisis and devastating flooding. ADN’s Regional Coordinator in Nigeria, Dr Azukaego Nnaji carried out a sensitisation and awareness creation activity on COVID-19 for school children. We are exceptionally proud and thankful of all of our Regional Coordinators’ impactful work to avoid deaths.
The reflective research papers in this newsletter tease out some of the diversities of hazards and crises, as well as coping stories. The newsletter also provides an update on the UN’s Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction’s first two global targets in the context of the African Union, and an interview with Mr Dave Paul Zervaas from the United Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
I hope that you will enjoy reading this newsletter. I welcome your comments and suggestions on this newsletter, which we shall feature in our next edition.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett
President and Editor-In-Chief for the Avoidable Deaths Newsletter
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"Congratulations! This is nicely done. You’ve packed quite a lot of information in it. I hope it reaches a large audience." - Steve Glovinsky, ADN's Advisory Board Member and International Development Consultant
“Many thanks for your email and congratulations to the ADN team for success.” - Ranit Chatterjee, ADN’s Organisational Partner and Co-founder of RIKA
“I have gone through ADN’s first newsletter with great interest. Congratulations! So happy to see the network rapidly gaining ground around the world.” - Manu Gupta, Co-founder of SEEDS
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The ADN Community has steadily been growing. As of October 2020, ADN has attracted 471 followers from 48 countries on Facebook (of which 33% are female and 67% are male) and 361 on Twitter (of which 42% are female and 58% are male). ADN has attracted 34 organisational partners, 97 affiliates and 32 interns/research assistants.
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Between January and October 2020, ADN published 19 blogs and 397 posts on Facebook. The blogs can be found on our website. If you would like to write a blog or short article for ADN, please contact: contact@avoidable-deaths.net
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On 12 October 2020 on the eve of the UN’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, ADN held the first Global Webinar on ‘Disaster Risk Governance’. This Webinar was attended by 78 participants. For more information on the event, please see our website.
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On 2 July 2020, ADN’s Founder and President, Dr Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett was live on BBC Radio Leicester with Ben Jackson on his Mid-Morning Show. Dr Ray-Bennett answered COVID-19 pandemic related questions from school children (11-17 years of age) in Leicestershire.
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On 1 July 2020, ADN's Hub-India in collaboration with Doers and NIIS-Odisha started a project titled: ‘COVID-19 Helplines for Mental Health & Psychosocial Support in India’. Details of this project can be found through this link. The report for this project was released on 18 October 2020.
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On 22 April 2020, it was announced that the research project ‘Avoidable Deaths from the Effect of COVID-19 and Lockdown’ was selected as one of the COVID-19 Working Groups for Public Health and Social Science Research. This selection was approved through the National Science Foundation-funded Social Science Extreme Events Research (SSEER) Network and the CONVERGE facility housed at the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. Details of these projects can be found through this link.
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On 12 April 2020, a special ADN Bulletin on Coronavirus was released. You can read this Bulletin via this link.
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the launching ceremonies for ADN's Hubs in India, Bangladesh and Uganda were cancelled. We hope we will be able to launch them post COVID-19.
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On 3 April 2020, the Repository of COVID-19 Information page was launched to provide reliable information to the public. This page has been viewed 356 times so far.
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On 29 March 2020, the ADN commenced an art project on ‘Hope’. As part of this project 15 images were submitted to ADN. The winning image has been provided at the beginning of this newsletter and all of the images are featured on ADN's Photo Gallery.
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On 12 March 2020, ADN celebrated its first birthday. We received birthday wishes from all over the world. Please see ADN's Photo Gallery.
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On 6 March 2020, ADN's Founder and President, Dr Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett was informed that she was successful in raising six prestigious ‘Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships 2020-21’ for the MSc in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management (RCDM) from the Commonwealth Secretariat/DFID. Six Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships were awarded to Navneet Yadav and Nimisha Goswami from India, Arnold Ambundo and Hussein Harrow Halake from Kenya, Victor Ndubuisi Okoro from Nigeria, and Racheal Margaret Nantume from Uganda.
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On 3 December 2019, ADN’s Founder and President Dr Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett delivered a lecture on the ‘RHCC Intervention in Bangladesh’ at the University of College London’s Institute for Risk and Disaster Risk Reduction, London.
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On 8 November 2019, funded by Leicester Institute of Advanced Studies Tiger Team Funds, Dr Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett conducted a day-long research meeting at the University of Leicester to raise the visibility of ADN. This event was attended by ADN’s two Regional Coordinators from India and Uganda, and a number of stakeholders, including: IPPF South Asia Region Office, Ministry of Defence, Tata Steel, National Fire Council Service Rep, Data Management Aid, Bangabandhu Skeikh Mujib Medical University – among others.
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On 7 November 2019, funded by Leicester’s ESRC-Impact Acceleration Account Fund, Dr Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett successfully delivered the ESRC Festival of Social Science. The Festival of Social Science raised the visibility of her IPPF-funded research project on ‘Reproductive Health in Disasters’. The feedback from the speakers and the audiences was very positive. Participants enjoyed the QI quiz session immensely.
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News from the Regional Coordinators and Advisory Board Members
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Mr Dillip Pattanaik, ADN’s Regional Coordinator in India and the Executive Director of Orissa State Volunteers and Social Workers Association (OSVSWA), conducted an awareness campaign on Social Distancing and Handwashing in tribal villages of Odisha. Please see a couple of pictures of the campaign below.
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Dr Edris Alam, ADN's Regional Coordinator in Bangladesh and Honorary Chief Executive of the Disaster and Development Organisation (DADO), organised food relief, virtual doctor support and launched a physical distancing awareness program in Sandwip Island, Bangladesh.
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Dr Madhulika Sahoo, ADN’s Regional Coordinator in India, won the InSc Young Achiever Award/Research Excellence Award in August 2020.
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Mr Shahidul Hoque, ADN’s Regional Coordinator in Bangladesh, led an extensive awareness campaign on COVID-19. With the help of volunteers from local organisations, Mr Hoque also distributed masks and collaborated with the district administration in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Please see a couple of pictures of the campaign below.
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Mr Daniel Mendez, ADN's Regional Coordinator in Belize, and Dr Minerva Pinelo, ADN’s Affiliate, co-facilitated a workshop titled: "Pro-Adapt Belize - Increasing Climate Change Resilience & Related Business Opportunities" on 6 August 2020. This workshop was prepared for the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry to gather workable solutions to resilient construction. The session also engaged with students from the Institute for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (ITVET) and University of Belize (UB).
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Dr Azukaego Nnaji, ADN’s Regional Coordinator in Nigeria carried out a sensitisation and awareness creation activity on COVID-19 on 20 August 2020. This creation activity took place at the Government Junior Secondary School, Byazhin, in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria and involved over 500 school students. In addition to a talk on COVID-19, face masks and hand sanitisers were distributed to the students to help contain the spread of the virus. To avoid overcrowding, a section of the students was used to demonstrate wearing masks and distribution of hand sanitisers while the teachers distributed the remaining face masks and sanitisers in each class. Please see a couple of pictures from the creation activity event.
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News from the Organisational Partners
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Doers, a humanitarian non-governmental organisation in India, celebrated the World First Aid Day on 12 September 2020. One of the most popular activities carried out by Doers is to train local communities in Himachal Pradesh on First Aid skills to develop the capacities for disaster resilience.
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Nimisha Goswami, from International Planned Parenthood Federation - South Asia Regional Office (IPPF-SARO) provided IPPF’s COVID-19 Response Plan. The photos below show IPPF's Member Association Family Planning Association of Nepal implementing the COVID-19 Response Plan.
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Dr Yazidhi Bamutaze has written a short article titled: Disastrous Floods in the Midst of COVID-19 Pandemic in Kasese District of Uganda. To read this article, please click here.
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Dr Madhulika Sahoo has written a short article titled: Indigenous Practices of Containing the Infection of COVID-19 in India. To read this article, please click here.
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Adelle Lim has written a short article titled: Fighting Fire with Fire: Tackling Australia Bushfires with Indigenous Knowledge. To read this article, please click here.
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Arkoneil Ghosh has written a short article titled: Design for Accessible-to-All Toilets Using Lego Models: Update from ADN's Junior Champion. To read this article, please click here.
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Dr Edris Alam and Dr Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett have written a short article titled: Disaster Risk Governance for District-Level Landslide Risk Management in Rangamati, Bangladesh. To read this article, please click here.
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Dr Hideyuki Shiroshita has written a short article titled: School Pupils in Osaka are Champions for Avoidable Deaths from Tsunamis. To read this article, please click here.
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Short interviews are conducted to gain multiple perspective on avoidable deaths. The interview below with Mr Zervaas was conducted by Dr Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett at the UNDRR’s Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland.
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For an update on the United Nations Office on Disaster Risk Reduction’s (UNDRR) Effort to Reduce Deaths, written by the ADN’s President, Dr Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett and Antara Ragini Dev Sarmah, please click here.
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3-5 December 2020: The ADN will hold a Panel Discussion on 'Talking About Avoidable Deaths: Perspective from Multiple Sectors' at the International Conference on Geographical Science for Resilient Communities, Ecosystems and Livelihoods under Global Environmental Change (GORILLA), which is hosted by Makerere University in Kampala. GORILLA targets sharing knowledge and research on emerging science, technology, tools and innovations around resilient communities, ecosystems, and livelihoods. For more information on this conference, please click here.
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9-12 December 2020: The Fifth World Congress on Disaster Management (WCDM-2020) will be held in New Delhi, India. It is organised by Disaster Management Initiatives and Convergence Society (DMICS) and the Indian Institute Of Technology Delhi. The WCDM-2020 will deliberate on the challenges and opportunities of harnessing technologies, mobilising resources and developing capacities for building resilience to disasters, focusing on the global pandemics of COVID-19. For more information on the WCDM-2020, please click here.
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25-26 February 2021: The World Conference on Disaster Management will be held in Bali, Indonesia. It is organised by BioLeagues worldwide to inculcate in the minds of thinkers, a sustainable pre-disaster arrangement such that the livelihood of the people and the economy of the nation does not falter after the disaster. For more information on this conference, please click here.
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Ray-Bennett, N.S., A., Khawaja, S., Shiroshita, H., Chowdhury, S., Nelson, E., Kalta, N., Bano, M., Nayak, B.M., Gupta, N., Kaur, M., Shelly, J., Barik, S., Pradhan, K., Mishra, R., Mishra P., Anjali, K. Rathi, N., K.K.A., K, M. (2020) COVID-19 Helpline Services in India. Leicester, Osaka: Avoidable Deaths Network. Please click here to read it.
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Ray-Bennett, N.S., Mendez, D., Alam, E., and Morgner, C. (2020) Inter-Agency Collaboration in Natural Hazard Management in Developed Countries. In Gerber, B. (ed.) Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science, New York: Oxford University Press. Please click here to read it.
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Ray-Bennett, N.S. and Shiroshita, H. (2019) Disasters, Deaths and the Sendai Framework’s Target One: A Case for Systems Failure in Hiroshima Landslide 2014, Japan. Disaster Prevention and Management, 28 (6): 764-785. Please click here to read it.
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