European Disaster Volunteers

In April, 2009, EDV assessed the possibility of responding to the magnitude 6.3 earthquake which struck Aburzzo, in central Italy, on 6th April and affected tens of thousands.

Upon arriving in L'Aquila we were immediately impressed by the huge presence of Italian response personnel. Every other vehicle was filled with Italian Civil Protection or Red Cross workers. 

Our immediate impression was that this disaster had not overwhelmed the local capacity to respond. In other words, outside help was not needed and would do nothing more than inhibit local efforts. A tour of the Civil Protection's head quarters on our second evening in Italy cemented our initial impression - managing the response was definitely not outside their ability.

What's more, the disaster did not seem to have overwhelmed the local communities either. Many of our volunteers know how difficult living conditions in displacement camps can be. Often the sense of defeat in the camps is palpable. In Abruzzo, many of the heavy duty tents rattled with music.

While we aren't trivialising the plight of the Italian survivors, the message we received from those we met in the camps was clear. "Thanks for coming, but we don't need you to do this for us." 

So instead of running a deployment, we'll be keeping in touch with survivors and organisations who are planning to run community programmes and social projects and try to provide support in any way we can. Initial requests are for help with translating documents from Italian to French, Spanish, and Arabic. Other requests will be coming in for the next few weeks, and we'll keep you updated on what people need.

If you have any further questions, check out our full assessment report. 

Thanks to everyone who has already expressed an interest and especially to Elena for her translation help.