From ESWStanford
Contents |
General Background:
Padang is just south of the areas in Sumatra that were devastated by the mega tsunami of 2004. Seismologists believe that the 2004 earthquake/tsunami increased the stress on faults to the south of the area that ruptured in that event. This increases the likelihood that a major earthquake and tsunami could strike Padang and other parts of Sumatra in the near future. A tsunami would arrive at Padang, a city of 1 million, only minutes after a major offshore earthquake. Patra was just finishing at university (I think medical school) when the tsunami hit northern Sumatra and the rest of Asia in 2004. She joined a group of surfers from San Francisco to provide emergency relief to devastated areas. As she was doing this, she realized the danger facing her own city. She and fellow recent graduates began to think about issues of tsunami warning, evacuation and public education in Padang and, with the help of the surfers and community leaders, they launched a grassroots effort to get their city prepared. Now, elected officials in Padang are helping, the work of KOGAMI (the organization she and her friends formed) has received national recognition in Indonesia, and outsiders are working to help them get the funds and support they need. GHI wants to work to help her and to help spread her successes to other communities in Indonesia and other countries.
Biography of Tony Litwak:
Tony Litwak is a native Californian living in San Francisco and working as the program director for a juvenile justice and leadership program called San Francisco Peer Court.
Following the tsunami, Tony went to Indonesia to help with and document the relief efforts, but kept going back as the story of the evacuation planning continued to develop. This film is the product of five different trips to Indonesia over an 18 month period to document these incredible efforts.
Description of Film:
Finding Higher Ground: A Year of Hope in the Heart of the Ring of Fire
A documentary film by Tony Litwak
In the wake of the devastating tsunami that rocked the world in December of 2004, an incredible movement developed made up of surfers, students, journalists and humanitarians from around the world.
Following the disaster, an unlikely group developed in Padang, Indonesia – center of the booming surfing industry in Sumatra. They went on to launch an extraordinary and highly effective series of do-it-yourself projects that ranged from daring first-response disaster relief to the clever rebuilding of local fishing economies through the re-supply of fleets of fishing canoes washed away by the killer wave.
Their efforts continue to this day…With Padang called the “most dangerous city in the world” for the next big earthquake and tsunami, the team developed an incredible community action movement that has organized over 50,000 people into direct action in West Sumatra.
Their struggle to organize the community has become a model in the region, but also an uphill battle against stubborn governments, a population that doesn’t know the science, and a disgraceful lack of funding from the billions pledged for preparedness worldwide.
Description of GHI:
Vision: A world of self-reliant communities that can continue their economic, political and cultural development unimpeded by natural disasters.
Mission: To reduce death and suffering – particularly among children – due to earthquakes and other natural hazards in the world’s most vulnerable communities through advocacy, preparedness, prevention and mitigation.
GeoHazards International (GHI) was established in 1991 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing death and injury caused by natural hazards in the world's most vulnerable communities. These communities, the cities of developing countries, are the least prepared to cope with the earthquake risk that increases exponentially with population density. Recognizing that the needs of the people who live in such vulnerable communities have been virtually ignored, GHI is dedicated to reducing future death and injury from earthquakes in the developing world.
GHI is a global network of people alarmed by the world’s growing earthquake risk, aware of methods that could reduce human suffering, and determined to help. Central to GHI is its Board of Trustees, which is legally responsible for the organization’s management and includes earthquake and natural hazard specialists with strong ties to the academic, business, and government sectors of the United States, Europe and Japan. GHI’s Board of Advisors is a group of international experts in the earthquake risk of developing countries; they provide technical guidance to GHI, and, on occasion, participate in GHI projects. GHI’s staff, which performs day-to-day operations, is located in Palo Alto, California, within easy access to many of the world’s most experienced earthquake risk managers in business, government, and academic sectors. Among them, the members of the Board of Trustees, the Board of Advisors, and the staff have literally centuries of experience in seismology, earthquake engineering, risk management, and advocacy outreach.
GHI enjoys close association with Stanford University, particularly its departments of Geophysics and Civil Engineering. Two of the members of its Board of Trustees are professors at Stanford. Located next to the Stanford campus, GHI benefits from frequent professional and personal contacts with faculty, students, and visitors.
GHI is unique in its goals, values, and effectiveness. No other organization has its particular mission, free of competing political, business, religious, or research priorities. GHI believes in international assistance as well as in local responsibility. Administrative costs are low because its staff is small in number, well educated, and highly motivated, having witnessed the consequences of both earthquakes and earthquake preparation.
GHI reduces death and injury by helping vulnerable communities recognize their risk and the methods to manage it. In particular, GHI makes a community safer by raising awareness of its risk, building local institutions to manage that risk, and strengthening schools to protect and train the community’s future generations.
Note: For additional information, see attached fact sheet.
