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Rebuilding Sustainable Communities with Vulnerable Populations after the Cameras Have Gone: A Worldwide Study
Author(s): Adenrele Awotona (Author, Editor)
- Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
- Publication Date: 27 July 2012
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 570 pages
- ISBN-10: 1443837393
- ISBN-13: 9781443837392
Book Description
This volume focuses on the status of the elderly and the disabled after disasters globally as well as the challenges of post-earthquake rebuilding in Haiti. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has estimated that between 1987 and 2007, about 26 million older people were affected each year by natural disasters alone and that this figure could more than double by 2050 due to the rapidly changing demographics of ageing. People with disabilities (physical, medical, sensory or cognitive) are equally at risk of utter neglect during and after disasters. The Australian Agency for International Development estimates that 650 million people across the world have a disability and about 80 per cent of them live in developing countries. Similarly, before the January 2010 earthquake, Haiti was a “country with tremendous development needs and numerous impediments to development,” according to Congresswoman Maxine Waters when introducing a Resolution in the US House of Representatives to cancel Haiti’s debts in March 2007. These impediments included an overwhelming burden of international debt; lack of personal and community assets; and, very little or no internal and external capacities, all of which have been exacerbated by the aftermath of the earthquake. It was against this background that the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters at the University of Massachusetts Boston organized two international Conferences in 2010 – in April, on Rebuilding Sustainable Communities in Haiti in the wake of the January Earthquake; and, in July, on Rebuilding Sustainable Communities with the Elderly and Disabled People after Disasters. This edited book consists of selected papers that were presented at these academic events. The topics include Disaster Experiences of the Elderly and the Disabled in Nigeria; The Vulnerability of Elderly People in the Aftermath of Earthquakes in Iran; Methods for Assessing and Developing Understanding of Resiliency in Communities; The Tuareg’s traditional Shelter for Disaster Mitigation and Reconstruction in Libya; and, People with Disabilities in Haiti Before and After the 2010 Earthquake.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Rebuilding Sustainable Communities in Iraq: Policies, Programs and International Perspectives should elicit an enthusiastic response from a variety of countries and international organizations which are interested in the topics covered in this book. –Fuad Safwat, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Boston
While the rest of the world focuses on the success and failure of military operations, millions of Iraqis are dealing with the destruction of their lives and their country. Rarely is any attention given to describing what a hopeful resolution to the devastation might be. Rebuilding Sustainable Communities in Iraq gives us hope. It tackles the overwhelming problem of rebuilding Iraq–helping its children, families and institutions heal–in an insightful, systematic and believable way. Let us hope that this book will inspire many to focus their thoughts, feelings and actions on reconciliation, not war. –Diane Levin, Ph.D., Professor of Education, Wheelock College
About the Author
Adenrele Awotona is the Director of the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA. He was a Director of Studies for the British Council International Seminars (Reconstruction after disasters) in the United Kingdom. His publications include Rebuilding Sustainable Communities for Children and their Families after Disasters: A Global Survey (edited, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010) and Rebuilding Sustainable Communities in Iraq: Policies, Programs and International Perspectives (edited, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008).
