Disaster Resilience Through Community Empowerment

Summary

This project educates selected communities in Southeastern Mexico on techniques that will lessen the impact of natural disasters.

What is the issue, problem, or challenge?

This project addresses the issue of disasters wiping out critical infrastructure in developing communities—particularly in Motozintla, Mexico. We focus on empowering the community through education to practice specific techniques to lessen the impact of natural disasters. We help the community map specific hazards based off a program designed by Dr. Subramanian for use after the Indian Ocean Tsunami. This will have high-impact because it incorporates professional practices with local knowledge.

How will this project solve this problem?

We design an educational program that focuses on land-use based on research done with community members. We help the community map out hazards that they feel threaten it and provide training to help them lessen the impact of these hazards.

Potential Long Term Impact

The project will educate and train the entire community allowing them to face less devastation from hurricanes and landslide; hence, increasing their general welfare. Furthermore, we are beginning a replicable model for other communities.

Project Message

Opportunities created in the wake of disasters are easy to find. We believe they should be seized.
- Jeffrey Engle, Project Founder

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).