Bangun - Creative Responses to Disaster in Sumatra

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UNSW NETWORK

UNSW academics are directly involved in the reconstruction process after the Tsunami. On this webpage the work of UNSW teams will be synthesised into a concise list of issues that are immediately relevant to communities affected by the Tsunami.

We are hoping to publish five to ten points from each UNSW team involved in the reconstruction process. For those UNSW teams who are still waiting to submit please forward your points to: scotthawken2004@yahoo.com.au

School Of Social Work

Dr Eileen Pittaway, Director of the Centre for Refugee Research Linda Bartolomei, Senior Research Associate

SEXUAL AND GENDER BASED VIOLENCE IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE TSUNAMI

Women and children were the worst affected by the force of the tsunami, children because they are small and often dependent on adults, and women because they died trying to care for their children and other family members. Women’s traditional dress and roles in society left them ill equipped to escape. For women who did survive many experienced a second wave of violence, caused by an increase in incidents of rape and domestic violence. Incidents of rape, gang rape, molestation and physical abuse of women and girls in the course of unsupervised rescue operations and while in temporary shelters have been reported in Sri Lanka and other tsunami affected areas. (Pikul, 2005). Unfortunately, these reports are consistent with literature concerning disaster and sexual and gender based violence (SGBV)(Enarson, 2000, 1998).

KEY POINTS

  1. The major focus of psychosocial services to survivors of the Tsunamis is to normalise the experience and not pathologise the grieving process experienced by the survivors. It must noted that SGBV is not normal in any circumstances and this additional trauma will seriously affect the resilience and ability of women and children affected by violence to recover from the trauma of the Tsunami.
  2. Natural disasters do not exist in isolation from the social and cultural constructs that already marginalize women and place them at risk of violence. Issues of livelihood, security, land tenure and housing now pose major challenges for those displaced by the tsunami and in particular for women’s wellbeing.
  3. The particular needs of women, especially widows, single headed households and young women who have lost all family members must be a priority consideration in order to minimise their vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.
  4. Women in all tsunami affected areas must be equally represented in all levels of decision making regarding the reconstruction including at camp and community level, district, regional national and international. Women’s participation in these structures is a key to ensuring that risks of rape, sexual violence and other forms of human rights abuses including forced relocation and loss of land and livelihood rights are minimized, yet all too often their voice is not heard.
  5. Models of relief provision employed by many INGOs and agencies must ensure that women and men in the affected communities take an active and equal role in the recovery process. The local expertise, experience and knowledge of women and men must be recognised and appropriate capacity building support will be provided where it is required.
  6. All relief and recovery efforts must pay special attention to marginalized group and to recognise that women and girls in these groups often bear the double disadvantage of being also being marginalised and excluded because of their gender. These groups include: widows, women headed households, women with a disability, the aged, migrant workers, minority and Dalit women ( India and Sri Lanka).

THE RECONSTRUCTION EFFORTS MUST ALSO:

Background to Linda Bartolomei and Eileen Pittaway’s Work

In January 2005, Dr Eileen Pittaway, Director of the Centre for Refugee Research, and Linda Bartolomei, Senior Research Associate, travelled to Sri Lanka with Professor Anthony Zwi and other academic staff from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine as part of the University response to the Tsunami. Eileen and Linda are working with local women’s groups in Sri Lanka, and with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). They are providing training and technical support to assist in the establishment of programs across the affected areas for women who have lost homes and family, and sadly also suffered from sexual abuse in the aftermath of the disaster. They returned to Sri Lanka in February and will have an ongoing involvement in this project. In March they attended the 49th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York. At this meeting they worked with women’s groups from across the Asia Pacific Region to draft and lobby for a UN resolution on an appropriate gender response to the Tsunami and other post-disaster relief situations. The resolution entitled “Integrating a gender perspective in post-disaster relief, recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts, including in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster.” was tabled and formally accepted on March 11th 2005, the final day of the UN session. The key issues of concern relating to the recovery process listed below are drawn from their field experience in Sri Lanka and from the concerns and priorities shared by grass roots women’s groups across the Tsunami affected areas. Many of these are reflected in the above mentioned UN resolution. For further information on the concerns and views of grassroots community and human rights groups across the tsunami affected areas, see http://www.forumasia.org/activities/tsunami/ACSC_PTC.shtml