5.3. Community Engagement in Design

So, the moment when these NGOs when these agencies come into the picture, many at times what they do is they perceive the local knowledge, they perceive that this system, this particular social system has failed to receive the expected conditions of life from the system. So, that is where you know the larger collective stress situations took place that how the system has failed.

When NGOs and agencies intervene in communities, they often view the existing local knowledge as inadequate. They believe that the community's social and support systems have failed to provide satisfactory living conditions. This perception creates stress and a sense of failure within the community, which can lead to a deeper disconnect between local practices and external assistance.

Imagine a school where teachers feel like the students are failing because they don’t understand the curriculum. Instead of looking at how the students currently learn and adapt, the teachers might impose new methods without understanding the students’ needs. Similarly, NGOs might introduce solutions without considering local ways of life.

But then the many of the relief operations, when they come into the rescue or the rehabilitation projects, they try to reject and in favour of the systems familiar to an exercised by the relief culture. So, they either depend on the, they either rely more on what they have already executed and also the relief culture though they try to undermine the local systems, they try to understand, undermine the local traditions.

Relief operations often prioritize their familiar methods over understanding the local systems. This tendency leads to a neglect of local traditions and practices, which may actually contain valuable knowledge and strategies for resilience. As a result, relief efforts may miss out on effective, culturally appropriate solutions, leaving communities feeling further alienated.

Think about a chef who decides to cook a traditional dish but ignores the local ingredients and cooking techniques. Instead, they use ingredients they prefer from their own cuisine. This may result in a dish that looks similar but lacks the essence of the original, missing the flavors that locals cherish.

And a victim culture is always being made aware of the failure of the local, traditional and indigenous systems to either anticipate the disaster or be able to cope up when it happens.

The concept of a 'victim culture' emerges when communities are frequently reminded of their inability to manage disasters. This narrative undermines their confidence in traditional leadership and practices, creating a reliance on external solutions and fostering vulnerability to outside influences.

Imagine a town that faces a flood every spring. Instead of empowering residents to create their own flood defenses using their existing knowledge, outside experts come in and tell them that their efforts were insufficient. Over time, this narrative makes the community feel helpless, leading them to depend entirely on the experts.

So, many of these reports whether we talk about the damage statistics, how much loss of life is damaged, how much property has been damaged, they are narrowed down to the numericals, they are narrowed down to the surface structures of the society and they are often reduced to the statistical terms.

Reports on disaster impact typically focus on numbers—like death tolls and property damage—rather than the broader social and emotional fallout. This reductionism overlooks the nuanced effects that disasters have on community dynamics and individual lives, reinforcing a view of affected areas solely in economic terms.

Consider a sports match where the analysis focuses only on the final score rather than how the game was played. This narrow focus misses important tactics, player morale, and team dynamics that contributed to the game’s outcome, much like statistics can fail to convey the depth of community experiences after a disaster.

But here, when you go on an individual house for a house you build a house when NGO comes and build a house, you go away and that’s it so what happens next, how it affects the neighbour, so that is where we are missing in that level.

When NGOs focus on rebuilding individual homes without considering the entire neighborhood and its interconnected systems, they overlook the community’s broader context. A home is part of a larger habitat that includes roads, drainage, and electricity; failing to integrate these aspects can result in poorly functioning communities after reconstruction.

It's like fixing an engine in a car without checking the tires. While the car might work better after the engine repair, if the tires are worn out, it can still lead to accidents. Similarly, rebuilding isolated homes without fixing the whole community infrastructure can create further problems.

So if, the fisherman has a different cultural need and similar to the Gibellina of understanding of the uniform and standardized forms of housing and how it often gets rejected by the communities because of their cultural needs, livelihood needs.

Community-specific needs, especially in terms of livelihood and cultural practices, are often overlooked in housing solutions. For example, fishermen might require homes that facilitate their way of life, such as proximity to the sea. When NGOs apply standardized designs, these essentials can be ignored, leading to households that feel alien and unsatisfactory for local inhabitants.

Think about a gardener who insists that every plant should be in the same pot size and shape, regardless of its growth needs. Some plants might thrive in larger pots with more soil, while others need smaller pots for better drainage. By ignoring individual plant needs, the gardener limits their garden's potential, just like standardized housing limits community resilience.

Whereas in this and this in the agency driven process what happens is you the agency will not consider a lot of differential aspects especially, in terms of space requirements, the communal response to it and the needs or the situational analysis, how it has changed before disaster and after disaster.

Engaging with the community allows for a more nuanced understanding of their unique spatial and social needs. An agency-driven approach tends to overlook these aspects, resulting in a one-size-fits-all solution that may not fit the context or the evolving needs after a disaster.

It's akin to a teacher ignoring students' feedback about their learning styles. If the teacher insists on teaching in a way that suits one group of learners, others may not succeed. By engaging students in dialogue, the teacher can adapt methods that cater to diverse learning needs, fostering a better educational environment.

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