Disaster strikes, transforming cities and towns into graveyards and
wastelands in a matter of minutes. But help is on its way: news channels
and social media relay the information to all corners of the globe in
real-time, mobilising hundreds of people and organisations to aid. Yet,
with standard relief packages regardless of the location, and a lack of
effort taken to match volunteers' skills with tasks, just how effective
are we at helping others?Many people want to do good, but they like to
do it at their convenience. These attempts at helping often fail, and
the blame invariably falls on the disaster victims, rather than looking
at the suitability of aid provided. Such help, offered without a
thorough understanding of the context or the impact of actions, can
create situations that leave the victims worse off than before.So how
can we create real sustainable impact?Most communities have a lot of
unused human capacity. When offering help, many aid providers fail to
engage the local communities, thus excluding a critical group of people
with the knowledge of local ways and needs.This book elaborates on a
simple principle essential to effective aid -- Never Help: Engage,
Enable, Empower and Connect.It is important that we fully understand the
problem before we try to solve it, and who better to help us with
solutions than the local community?
