Since June, Pakistan has been devastated by record monsoon rains causing the worst flooding in decades.  The provinces of Sindh and Balochistan have been worst hit, but communities where our partners work, in the northern province of Khyberpakhtunkhwa (KPK), have also been badly affected by the floods.

Amplifying Voices Pakistan has responded by supporting these communities near Charsadda and near Nowshera. Hazeen from Amplifying Voices Pakistan told me that private Youtubers and TikTokers did a good job of telling people where to find food and shelter. Amplifying Voices set out to reach people not reached through these channels, to raise the voices of people not reached by aid responders, and to provide access to health advice and basic medical treatment.

Nowshera

Zafar "gets his shoes dirty" getting out and about to hear community members' stories near Nowshera, Aug 2022.

Zafar, the founder of local partner, Community Media Power, is also Amplifying Voices Pakistan's representative in Nowshera for a new disaster response arm, AViD (Amplifying Voices in Disaster). As the flood warnings started, the local military commander invited Zafar to attend disaster management briefings. This turned out to be vital for accessing up-to-the-minute official information and advice on behalf of the listeners. Zafar also interviewed local government officials including the Additional Deputy Commissioner (see image at top of page) and the Deputy Commissioner. The interviews were recorded and aired on the local station, Zalmay Fm, and also filmed for sending out via Facebook videos. This helped people hear the official advice on evacuation and later, advice on returning to homes after the worst of the flood.

A key aim of the radio response is to help community members take an active role in their own response, so Zafar also visited places where people had taken refuge after fleeing their homes, or where they had missed out on relief, so they could share their stories on air. One place that Zafar visited had had 8ft of water in the houses and 10 days had gone by with no relief arriving. He interviewed community members and made short videos of their situation which he shared on social media platforms connected to local authorities. The next day authorities sent machinery to clean the streets and also provided clean drinking water, food and sprayed the area to prevent disease. One community member said:

"No one would dare to come to our place after seeing such dirt and mud but the AViD team came to us. We will never forget their courage and care for us"

AViD volunteers also provided food packages directly to another group that had missed out on emergency relief.

AViD volunteer distributing food packages, nr Nowshera, Aug 2022

Following the initial response, Zafar recorded a series of interviews amplifying the voices of local heroes, such as local firefighters, who had done so much to help their communities.

Radio broadcasts to celebrate the local heroes in the Pakistan flood response, Nowshera 2022

Charsadda

In Charsadda district, the compound where the Naway Saher studio is located was flooded. The team leader’s family who live there managed to save a lot of their belongings by moving them, as many families do, to a room on their rooftop before the floods hit. They also managed to save the studio equipment. They then had to evacuate. On returning to the house after the worst of the flood, they found they had a huge clean up job on their hands, but most of their belongings were safe.

The Naway Saher team leader, who is also a local health worker, created radio programmes alerting people to the health risks faced by people returning to flood-damaged homes. We asked him how the children had been affected by the floods. He told us that the children found it exciting, because it was like there was a swimming pool everywhere. But this was also a huge a health risk for the children.  Swimming or walking in flood water holds increased risk of snakebites. The water is very dirty and unhygienic, with lots of submerged hazards. Boreholes had been compromised so drinking water was polluted. Amplifying Voices Pakistan provided emergency funding so that Naway Saher was able to record discussions about these challenges with local people and air them on the local radio station, Dilbar FM.

Following the radio programmes Naway Saher and Amplifying Voices Pakistan provided a pop-up health camp with emergency supplies of basic medicines to help people who had become ill because of the flood waters. The Naway Saher team leader and his wife, the ladies health worker for the area, know the people in their community well and were able to prioritise medicines and advice going to those who needed it most.

Ladies health worker provides advice and medicine, nr Charsadda, 2022

Despite this, so many people came to get medicine that the supplies ran out within 2 days. The health worker had to move the dispensary from his usual clinic to a local school which had more space for people to queue up. Hazeen encouraged Naway Saher to issue an appeal to raise local support for the medicines. This would supplement the funding given by Amplifying Voices, and followed the principle of supporting local people to take a leading role in their own response.

Medical camp in the school

Officials expect the effects of the floods to continue into October and beyond. Teams from Nowshera and Charsadda will continue to provide special radio programmes on flood recovery, with a focus on health care. There will be at least one more health camp in each location to support the need for emergency medicines. An emergency response like this falls outside the budgets and plans for Amplifying Voices Pakistan, so we are grateful to our supporters who can give a little extra to support Hazeen and his team in this time. We are also grateful to FEBC Australia for their generous support of this response.

Amplifying Voices in Disaster (AViD)

This was the first deployment of an Amplifying Voices in Disaster (AViD) response. AViD, is a concept that Amplifying Voices UK and Amplifying Voices Pakistan been working on together in preparation for such an event. AViD builds on our previous experience supporting First Response Radio, using radio programmes and other media to provide timely 2-way communication channels for local communities affected by a disaster. AViD’s goal is for community voices to play a central role in humanitarian responses, so that communities recover quickly from disaster, growing in confidence, capacity, and resilience as they do so.

We feel that Amplifying Voices can be most effective in disaster response by working with existing community-centred media projects where trust already exists between our partners and community members. This provides a strong foundation for supporting the affected community by creating media programmes with community voices at the fore.

AViD also equips community groups to liaise with the influx of humanitarian service providers who come into disaster-affected communities often with quite specialised information and advice to communicate. To equip ourselves for the task and to build understanding with humanitarian service providers, we are members of the CDAC Network. The CDAC Network is a global alliance of media development organisations, UN agencies, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, NGOs and specialist communications entities, all determined to enable and support dialogue with and between communities in preparation for, or response to disasters.

Donate to AViD Pakistan flood Response

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COVID19 has highlighted the vital role of communication for disseminating health and hygiene advice in a crisis, and for building cooperation across diverse populations. Although we have had to adapt working practices to observe physical distancing, community-centred media remains our primary tool in responding to Covid19.

Recording media content in Omugo Community, Feb 2021

We have also provided some emergency funding so our partners can support additional emergency relief activitiesto help their local communities to respond to this crisis.

For more information go to our COVID-19 Resources.

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People across the world are finding it difficult to practice social distancing from their families, friends and neighbours, and it can feel wrong and even disrespectful to many. It is a real challenge to change our everyday behaviour to help protect each other. Our partners are finding creative ways to encourage people to do things differently, practice good hygiene and still relate compassionately and safely with others.

India

Seva Social Welfare, HCR’s partner in India, is responding to immediate need in practical ways by running foodbanks and taking food into hospitals. They are finding people with cough symptoms and limited access to information, who don’t know about Coronavirus. This makes it difficult to practice physical distancing. The team are taking precautions with face masks and gloves as they serve people and they pass on the health advice.

Pakistan

Naway Saher near Charsadda in Pakistan is creating audio and visual messaging from their homes, and distributing them via WhatsApp and Facebook to support people in the remote village where they live. It is proving really important for the people providing health advice to work closely with religious leaders. HCR Pakistan also asks us to remember minority communities living in slums where social distancing and good hygiene is difficult to achieve.

Health worker giving advice from mosque microphone

Australia

HCR Australia is actively working with local services to communicate the importance of social distancing. For remote communities in Australia, hospital facilities can be hours away and travel is becoming increasingly restricted. HCR Australia is helping community leaders in remote communities to respond to this new reality and help protect the people who rely on them.  Like other countries, Australia has seen a spike in domestic violence as a result of the lockdown being put in place and HCR Australia is working closely with a project to reach out and help victims of abuse.

South Sudanese refugee settlements

The Soot Semee team in Northern Uganda is using music and song to communicate key health messages and ways of staying safe from the coronavirus within the refugee camps and the local communities.  The podcasts provide vital news and information updates to help people counter rumours. When the team distributes podcasts on memory cards, they keep and promote distancing rules – people in listener groups have had to change their listening practices to keep physically distance from each other. Soot Semee are also distributing hand sanitiser, gloves and masks for local volunteers working in the communities.

Kenya

In Kenya there is significant fear across the country and people are doing what they can to protect themselves. The Amani FM team are helping to address this fear by creating radio programmes to provide clear health information and promote cooperation between the different communities.

All of us, partners and HCR staff, are finding it a real challenge to adapt our community-centred approach for this time. Our main way of working is to engage with community members by going and listening to people in the midst of their challenges and successes. We are learning how to be ‘present’ with the communities we serve, while still observing the distancing precautions required at this time.

(Browse Amplifying Voices Covid-19 resources and communications advice)

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This need, lead to the development of the Rapid Response Radio Unit, where teams could be quickly mobilised in times of disaster, to set up emergency radio stations using a suitcase studio.  These stations provide the important information that communities most crave during challenging times. It is now being implemented through First Response Radio.

I learnt very early on that information, up-to-date, local information, is a basic need, particularly in times of crisis.  While different to a natural disaster, it’s become increasingly evident local information is also needed through the Covid-19 pandemic. Working in a rural community in Australia, as the pandemic spreads across the world, we are seeing increased levels of fear and insecurity because the community are not getting information from local sources at the local level in real time. Government reports occur periodically from the capital city five hours away, but in between these reports we are seeing misinformation spread through social media channels which is leading to increased fear and insecurity. People want to hear from local sources about what is happening in their community and know it’s from someone who is also experiencing what they are. It’s clear a community-centred media approach to media, from the grass roots, is needed more than ever. We need local, credible sources using the powerful tool of community media channels to support their communities through challenging times.

Talk to us if you would like to find out how we can help.

#communicationisaid

(Browse our Covid-19 resources and communications advice)

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Local response in Western Australia

There are not many cases of Covid-19 in Western Australia at the time of writing this article, but the media hype has caused a lot of panic. If the virus does spread, social conditions mean that Aboriginal people living in the region may be at a high risk. Radio MAMA, our Aboriginal media partner in Western Australia, is engaging with local communities and providing information from the Australian government around ways to reduce risk. The radio station is emphasising not to panic (and especially not to panic buy) but to reduce risk primarily through handwashing. They have been sharing tips on how to correctly hand wash too.

Local response in North West Pakistan

HCR Pakistan is supporting a community-centred media project in a small village in Northwest Pakistan. Today (Friday 13th Mar) the New Dawn project will broadcast their first ever live broadcast. Meanwhile the president for Pakistan has created a Public Service Announcement for TV advising people on best handwashing and other hygiene practices to prevent spread of infection. The New Dawn team has been sharing this same advice in the local Pakhtun language. They have also been gathering information from local health authorities. During the show, community members were able to call in or send questions by WhatsApp. This will give the team opportunity to hear community concerns and address rumours.

Supporting the international response

HCR is supporting our partners, by curating and passing on information from WHO and other trusted sources.

Source: Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Centre)

(Browse Amplifying Voices COVID19 resources and communications advice)

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Empowering

Yesterday Cyclone Kenneth made landfall near Pemba in Mozambique, the second cyclone to hit Mozambique this season. Only one month ago, Jon and I traveled to Beira in central Mozambique in response to Cyclone Idai. Damage to road infrastructure meant that Beira was cut off from many parts of the country for several days, and some surrounding towns were cut off for several weeks. The fastest way to re-connect people was through restoring the mobile networks and through FM radio stations. We worked alongside enthusiastic and welcoming volunteers from the community of Buzi, one of the worst flood-affected districts 35km south of Beira. HCR is a member of the First Response Radio (FRR) network and we were there to set up a temporary FM station providing critical information and advice to empower community members

As far as we know, it is unprecedented in for 2 cyclones to hit Mozambique in the same season. However the people of Mozambique have not been caught off guard. Learning lessons from the disconnection experienced in Beira and the surrounding regions, the government disaster manageme   nt agency, INGC, supported by the institute for social communication (ICS), have been quick to put preparations in place, connecting with people in advance using the national and community radio networks and instructing people to evacuate from high risk locations. So far (1 day after landfall) the storm has had much less effect than Cyclone Idai. There is still a risk from floods, but people are connected and getting vital information through radio.

Radio will continue to provide vital connections for people after the storm passes and the floods recede. In Beira, life is already getting ‘back to normal’. But we know from the stories we heard while we were in Beira and in Buzi, that below the surface, individuals and families will take a longer time to recover from loss of businesses, jobs, friends and colleagues. We met some really resilient people, but the need for psychosocial support continues.

Young people tell Buzi FM reporters their stories, Buzi district, March 2019. Photo credit: HCR  

Advocacy

A young man told a Buzi FM community reporter in Guara Guara settlement camp that he had been separated from his parents and had not yet reconnected with them. Radio can provide information, such as family re-unification hotline numbers, which keep people connected with other. Other vulnerable people who have been displaced and are living in camps can also hear about ways to connect to authorities outside the camps to report abuse or unfair treatment.

Education

The day before we left Buzi, a psychologist from Médecins Sans Frontières came to the Buzi FM studio to help listeners understand the effects of trauma and to identify early symptoms of PTSD. Addressing mental health issues will be a key issue as communities rebuild and radio can play an important role.

MSF psychologist gives community advice in temporary Buzi FM studio. March 2019. (Photo credit: HCR)

Community Voices

In the days after Cyclone Idai, Buzi radio audiences were missing popular community voices while the station was off air. It was a privilege to play a part in reconnecting Buzi listeners to programme presenters like Luisa, who presents a programme for women.

Information

We are glad to hear that Buzi FM is continuing to broadcast vital information to support their community. But there are still barriers to connection for some who lost all their belongings in the floods so HCR has arranged for 1000 radios to be transported to Beira and distributed by an international NGO partner to those who need them most in the Buzi district.

Disaster Preparedness

We are hopeful that Cyclone Kenneth has been robbed of its potential to damage the people of northern Mozambique. I am convinced that the pre-emptive efforts of INGC/ ICS to keep people connected through radio services has played a big part in reducing the impact of the storm.

Storm damaged cultural centre provides temporary studio location for Buzi FM, March 2019.

Buzi FM antenna on water tower. Buzi. March 2019. (Photo credit: HCR)

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In collaboration with First Response Radio, a 5-day workshop and 3-day field trial will be held in Pakistan from 21st to 29th March, 2017.

Photo courtesy of First Response Radio

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Last Friday the 13th of March, people living in Perth, Western Australia were bracing for strong weather warnings predicted over the weekend caused by Cyclone Olwyn.  Geraldton was on Yellow Alert Friday evening after the cyclone tore through Exmouth causing severe destruction.  However, the Category Three Cyclone changed direction at the last minute leaving Geraldton and Perth with only a sprinkle of rain, and people thinking “What a fizzle that cyclone was!”

Carnarvon however, wasn’t so lucky.  At 11am on Friday 13th the Cyclone hit, uprooting big trees, pushing electrical poles over, and tearing roof sheeting from homes. Many reported  the wind was so strong that the rain was horizontal.  HCR’s Geraldton-based staff work closely with Radio MAMA Carnarvon, an Aboriginal community radio station.

Today,  staff spoke with Radio MAMA volunteers Carmel and Antonio to discuss the aftermath of the cyclone.  Here’s what announcer Carmel, had to say:

It was really scary being by myself at home. I was stuck inside with just a candle for my only light, it made me feel dread.  I couldn’t wait until the next morning so there was light.  I heard a banging sound and thought it was damage being done to the neighbour’s house, but it was my front fence swinging in the wind.  I went outside to try close it and could hardly walk from the force of the storm.  The next morning before the sun even came up I went outside to see the damage.  There was debris everywhere and flooding.  At my daughters house a tree had been blown over by the wind the night before, and in the morning when she awoke it was back up.  The wind had changed direction and forced it up again. I got my electricity back Saturday evening, but some places only got there’s back yesterday.  Having no electricity affected so much including critical services like the hospital.  We couldn’t access money for food or phone credit.  Luckily, services have set up at the Wool Shed, and we have been able to get food and make phone calls.

Volunteer Antonio was also affected by the cyclone:

My dad works on one of the banana plantations.  There has been 100% damage to the 48 plantations in Carnarvon.  My dad’s house on the plantation had a tin roof, which was completely ripped off.  There were services around to help, but because of the damage to other houses exposing asbestos, there were precautions in place for the workers.  It was hard to explain that it was just a tin roof.  However, we did get some tape and my dad and I were able to fit it.  My house in town was damaged as well.

Carmel and Antonio said that the Carnarvon community are doing well now and have united together, with everyone doing what they can to get the town back up and running.  Carmel expressed how great it was that Radio MAMA broadcast up to date information of the cyclone warnings, and then what to do in the aftermath.  Although, power was lost, Radio MAMA was the first station back on air, providing emergency coverage for the Carnarvon community.  Radio is often the only available source of vital information and warnings when a cyclone hits. It is wonderful to see a community station like Radio MAMA providing this much needed emergency information to the Carnarvon community.

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The event marks the start of a plan to equip and train local teams to set up a radio station within 72 hours of a disaster anywhere in Pakistan.   HCR’s Hazeen Latif who is the First Response Pakistan coordinator says, “In the last ten years, nine teams have been trained, 15 disasters responded to, and we’ve been getting closer to the 72 hour mark as witnessed in the First Response Radio deployment to Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan.”

The event in Islamabad was a collaborative venture between Pakistan-based NGO, Foundation for Better Tomorrow (FFBT), First Response and HCR.

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