Education in Emergencies

Hello from Panama City, Panama!  

This summer has turned out to be quite a whirlwind tour of Latin America and some of its most significant institutions for Leilani and me.  We’ve been working on an evaluation of Plan International’s education in emergencies programs which has taken us from Plan’s regional office in Panama City, Panama to field offices in El Salvador, Ecuador, and Peru to conduct interviews with Plan staff and other stakeholders such as Ministries of Education, UN representatives, and program beneficiaries (teachers, children, and parents). 

Although it has been really interesting to talk with each of these groups, I have to say that what has touched us the most has been the conversations and focus groups with local communities and schools.  We’ve traveled out to some pretty remote field sites, especially in El Salvador where at one point after driving up treacherously curvy and bumpy mountain “roads” in a Plan SUV for the better part of an hour I felt compelled to pop Pepto Bismal and furtively hope that we would soon reach our destination.  These remote field visits have been well worth the trouble, though, as we had the opportunity to interact with Plan communities who are often forgotten by the rest of their society. 

The towns we’ve visited have all suffered some time of natural disaster in the past few years, ranging from floods to rockslides to earthquakes.  The people of the community and especially the children are some of the most resilient and strong human beings I’ve ever met.  With Plan’s help, they’ve taken various measures to protect themselves from damage in the future, such as forming “youth brigades” of adolescents whose job it is to be prepared to act in the event of an emergency by alerting the community and helping the younger children, and incorporating disaster risk reduction measures into their classroom curriculum. 

One story from a small town in El Salvador was particularly touching.  This town, called Pequeña Inglaterra, contained a community transplanted from their original location in the mountains in La Libertad.  A terrible 7.6 earthquake had struck La Libertad on January 13, 2001 and killed members of the community along with destroying homes, belongings, and livelihoods.  Below is an excerpt of a case study we wrote for Plan about the situation and services that were provided to this community. 

“The earthquake set off a series of landslides on the slopes of the town and rocks and boulders came crashing down the mountainside.  When it was over the earth looked like a wild animal had come from underneath the ground and destroyed everything in its path. The people of the community were hurt to see their homes destroyed.  The beautiful hillside community where many families had lived for generations was now completely destroyed and the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been the bedrock of the community for more than 120 years, had crumbled to the ground. There were casualties, and families had to spend days picking through the rubble to find the bodies of their loved ones.  People spent days looking for family members and collecting their belongings from the rubble. 

Because the town was now inhabitable, those without relatives to stay with in nearby towns all gathered together for the first night in a temporary shelter that was set up by community coordinators in a sturdy building.  About 70 families stayed in this shelter.  The next morning after the earthquake a few of the strongest people from the community journeyed to Santa Tecla to make contact with the outside world and tell them about the injured and dead in Los Amates.  When the country heard about what had happened in their community they were shocked.  The then-president of El Salvador, Francisco Flores, traveled that day by helicopter to the community to see the damage for himself….

…Finally, Plan found the solution for the Los Amates committee in the form of a donor from England who offered funds for 500 permanent homes for them in a new area.  It took Plan and the committee a while to find a new piece of land large enough for the construction of a whole new community, but they succeeded in doing so in the municipality of Maple City.  Here Plan helped the people to build their new permanent houses with the donated materials and to finally re-build their community and their lives.  This new community now houses over 500 families who were evacuated from disaster zones, and marks a new, fresh start to life. 

In addition to the homes, Plan constructed a new elementary school for the community in 2003 and provided the desks and materials necessary for the children to get a good education.  The teachers in the community continued to teach and one teacher comments looking back, “God gave us this opportunity to continue our work and the children give us the joy we need to motivate us to continue.”  Plan continues to provide support to the community in the form of conflict resolution, teacher trainings, and education support.  Plan also funds a pre-school program for children ages 0-5 so that they can begin to learn the skills they will need in school and their parents can feel they are being left in a safe place during the day while they work…”

Hearing incredible stories of resiliency like this is what has made our summer an incredible learning experience both in a professional and personal way.  We are here to evaluate the work that Plan has done, but what has really stood out to us is how well people can overcome the obstacles in their life if they are only given the resources and ability to do so.  

 By Noel Shadowen