Tim Hare - WRMC 2018

• 18 year old female student
• Day 5 of 10-day home-stay in city of 20,000
• Strong relationship with homestay community
• Language teacher brings Facebook post to your attention

In Summary

• More moving variables, more complex

• Greater distance between stakeholders - instructors, admin, parents, students, communities

• Layers upon layers of cultural depth

1) Understand the nuances of international programs

2) Learn from some of our (Dragons') challenges

3) Develop proactive international E.R. strategies

Be better guests

Should we go?

Because you don't have to. . .

OK, it's worth it!

• Communication
• Infrastructure
• Perceived vs actual risk
• Culture
• Greater unknown risks?
• Power and Privilege

(Often) Greater unknown risks

Communication

• Variable
• Timezones
• Technology

Hazards

Objective Subjective

Culture

Infrastructure

Perceived vs. Actual Risk

Discuss

• What are your most immediate concerns?
• What resources or info will be helpful in crafting a plan?
• What are the 2 most important steps to take right away?
• How can we avoid colonialist pitfalls?

Nepal

Conclusion

Important Actions

• Enacted emergency response plan

• Established authority & responsibility

• Contacted families immediately

• Gathered information (web, media, government)

• Maintained important communication

• Contacted ISOS, Embassy

• Sent note to other courses

• Submitted press release

• Developed plan slowly and deliberately

• Evacuated and terminated programs

• Offered mental health support

• Organized re-integration for students

• Established relief fund

• Hone natural disaster preparedness and response

• Understand limitations of emergency evacuation providers and adapt

• Practice

The Data

• April 25 - 7.9 tremor at 11:56am
• Epicenter in Lamjung district at 15 km - shallow
• Frequent, significant aftershocks, including 6.3 on April 26 and second 7.3 quake on May 12
• Infrastructure damage, strain on food and medical resources

Nicaragua

Homestay - social media

Discuss

Resolution

Conclusions

• Moved the student to new home-stay

• Contacted parents - significant challenge

• Sought deeper understanding

• Evaluated risks posed by post

• Cultural norms and nuances of language

• Emergence of social media - uniqueness in homestay context

• Homestay: high risk activity. Why?

• What are the real risks in this scenario?

• What resources or info will be helpful in crafting a plan?

• What is one important short-term action you will take?

Action Items

• Identify one improvement in your systems for supporting international programs based on the lens presented here

• Ensure that you understand the complexities of other cultures and immerse your participants in that, even if it is a "wilderness" program

• Ask the hard question about whether r goals perpetuate or ameliorate colonial power dynamics

Madagascar - risk threshold decision making

2017 Plague Epidemic

Discuss

• Pathology and history
• Aug-Nov 2017
• 2348 confirmed cases
• 1791 pneumonic
• 202 deaths

• What resources and systems would you want in place beforehand to address this?
• What hazards and unique variable have been presented thus far? Think beyond the plague.
• What additional information is required to best manage this?

Important Actions

• Requested that instructors perform daily monitoring of plague symptoms with students
• Reviewed our risk threshold
• Contacted other programs in-country
• Contacted legal council
• Contacted emergency evacuation provider
• Continued monitoring OSAC and ISOS alerts
• Decided to re-route group to Senegal on October 12

The Foreign and the Familiar

International Incident Response

WRMC - 2018

Tim Hare: tim@wheretherebedragons.com