Floods, drought, cyclones, earthquakes, avalanche – such disasters frequently cause massive loss of life and property in India, especially among the poor and vulnerable. To help radio and relief people understand each other’s work and collaborate during disasters, FIRST Response (FR) India recently participated in a FR Training of Trainers, workshop and field trial in north India.

FIRST Response Training of Trainers
For the last few FR workshops, staff from the UK conducted the training, so a major aim of this training (8-23 March) was to build local capacity in South Asia. For example, Prakash attended a FR workshop in India in June 2008 and then was part of the FR India team deployed to respond to the Bihar floods in September 2008. He moved on to the next capacity building stage by attending this recent 5-day FR Training of Trainers course in Delhi. This equipped him and other participants with knowledge and skills to train others in FR workshops.

FIRST Response workshop in Delhi
The next week the newly trained FR India staff conducted a 5-day FR disaster response radio workshop in Delhi with 8 participants from NGOs (EFICOR, World Vision, community health workers) and media backgrounds (Feba, TWR). They taught them hands-on training including how to operate the portable radio equipment, assembling and mounting the antenna, connecting the transmitter, writing up scripts for recording Public Service Announcements, interviewing people, talking and playing content on air and much more.

FIRST Response field trial in Bihar
The FR workshop always concludes with a field trial where participants put their training into practice. The Delhi class loaded up the portable suitcase studio, transmitter, antenna, radios as well as on-air content such as music. They travelled by plane to Bihar, with 12 more hours on a bus to get to the field location at a NGO hospital compound. “The idea of the field trial is to practice everything that they had learnt,” says Theo, FR UK trainer. “Mount the antenna, set up the studio. And then be on air continuously for 3 days (72 hours straight). Simulating action needed in a disaster, participants and trainers worked hard under pressure, with little sleep, meeting all targets set. It was a great learning experience.”

Some of the team members left at 5am one morning to go to a village where FR India had distributed radios when responding to the Kosi River floods there in 2008. Firoz from FR India talked with some people who had received radios back then. Many listeners recalled how the programmes had helped their lives.

So what’s next?
As a result of this training, FR India has a team fully trained and equipped with portable radio equipment in Bangalore and Delhi. Now FR India will run their own FR workshops (starting in the next 6-12 months) involving more local NGOs and government organisations, increasing the capacity within these disaster-prone areas. “Part of the workshop curriculum is defining roles,” says Theo. “So it should be when an actual disaster happens, you know who your coordinator is, you know who’s going to get the licence, who’s going to take care of the suitcase studio/technical staff, and who is going to do the interviews. You have a team of people ready.”

Why is disaster response radio important?
“Radio is a great tool to help connect the different agencies working directly with the affected people,” says Firoz. “In the 2008 Bihar floods, people who weren’t getting help called the station and explained their needs. A caller from one district said, ‘I am very happy because now they are distributing grains and cash in my area.’ He’s happy because we raised grievances of that area regularly in our programmes and in response he got money and grain.” So the radio station can advocate for listeners by contacting officials about aid not reaching certain areas until it is resolved.

As outlined in the FR course curriculum, the main tasks of radio in disaster are:

• Inform (about activities or services, such as where to get water, food, shelter)
• Educate (to increase knowledge and behaviour changes, such as how to purify water)
• Advocate (convince of the need for action and change, such as getting aid distribution)
• Promote social learning and dialogue (contribute to continuing sense of community, of self-efficacy and hope, for example, by inviting local guest speakers/singers on air)

Pray for the FIRST Response India team as they begin training other teams in disaster-prone areas, equipping them to use radio to save lives.