Learning from Yolanda               click graphics to enlarge
By Mark Pixley

Typhoon Yolanda, also known as Typhoon Haiyan, was one of the strongest recorded. It devastated parts of central Philippines on 8th November 2013. In response, the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia and several universities organized a conference for faculty and students followed by a service learning programme during which college students from across Asia spent a week living in the affected communities to do recovery projects.

The three-day conference on “Disaster Response, Community Resilience and The Role of Asian Universities” was held at the Central Philippine University, in IloIlo, on Panay Island, south of Manila, on June 28, 2014. I was invited to help with the facilitation and reflection and to introduce the disaster recovery model of the Global Facilitators Serving Communities (GFSC), an NGO that I work with, and the ORID (Objective, Reflective, Interpretive, Decisional) process for group discussions.

We had more than 200 participants, about 120 from universities in the Philippines and 80 from South Korea, Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Thailand and India.

I had planned a guided introduction but the schedule was disrupted so I did an exercise in which they had to line up by height, birthday and distance travelled. The line was so long that it circled around the conference room but all appreciated the interaction with each other.

My presentation was the next day. I began with an exercise in small groups where everyone would speak for three minutes. I then did 10 minutes of reflection. This helped people get to know each other and their experience of crisis. It also set the context for my presentation on the Crisis>Change>Choice disaster recovery model.

According to the GFSC model, after a major crisis individuals and communities go through four stages of recovery. The choices they make can lead to effective personal and community reconstruction or to a secondary crisis. Facilitation and engagement processes can play a critical role in the recovery process.

I introduced the ORID process and shared a format of appropriate questions for an introduction conversation at a meeting with community leaders – something the students might well do in the affected communities. The questions included: “What have been some major events for the community?” “What have been high/low points?” “What have been strengths of the community & its people?” and “What should the community carry into the future?”

Participants then practised using the ORID process. They paired off to lead a conversation on “Your College Experience” or “Childhood House”. I also handed out question formats for an “End of the Day” conversation, a “Common Experience” reflection and a movie conversation as additional resources.

We had a team-building session, during which we watched the first 15 minutes of “Haiyan: The Eye of the Storm” by the Discovery Channel. Team leaders led the discussion. The groups were large, so it was challenging for everyone to hear. The foreign students felt the video and discussion helped them grasp the nature of the disaster. The Filipino students had a chance to reflect on some of their experiences. The video was so impactful that we watched the rest of it over the next two days.

The nature of service learning emphasizes using reflective processes including maintaining journals and encouraging the faculty to facilitate group conversations. There was a wonderful mixture of people talking about the disaster, community resilience and how different institution had responded. One professor talked about creating mangrove buffers. There were responses from the government and churches, and some examples from Indonesia and China.

Several university presidents explained how universities were getting involved in disaster recovery processes. An interesting comment was that the government has lots of resources but is not good at distribution. The universities, with their student manpower, can repack materials and distribute them efficiently.

On the final day, the teams spelt out their aims. I gave them 30 minutes to prepare a poster outlining objectives for their community service and a creative presentation, like a song, slogan or dance. Before their presentation, I asked each participant to write their personal intention for the coming week on a post-it note. Each team had three minutes for its presentation, which were video-taped. As expected, they were soon trying to outperform each other.

Overall, I was pleased by the results of the conference program. Despite limited time, I was able to provide a solid introduction to the GFSC models and facilitation approaches. That empowered the students and prepared them for their service learning projects. The combination of brief lectures and practical application of methods was powerful. The closing round of project presentations energized and unified the teams for their week in the field.

Mark Pixley is general manager of Leadership Inc based in Shenzhen, China. He has worked with a range of NGOs as well as corporate and governmental organisations providing facilitation services and training in participatory change methods. Leadership Inc is an Associate Member of the ICAI. Mark is a board member of the Global Facilitators Serving Communities, which provides tools for communities to recover after major disasters.