Pajama Volunteers: The Digital Front of Disaster Response

Note to Self

WNYC Studios

Self-improvement, Tech, Note, Npr, Education, Public, Wnyc, Manoush, York, To, New, Self, Radio, Business, Technology, Relationships, City, Society & Culture, Zomorodi, Newtechcity

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2014

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Cries for help are hidden by the chatter of chaos. Vital updates are lost in the noise. In the crucial days after a natural disaster, information is not organized. But if it were, lives would be saved.

Springing to the cause is a new cadre of volunteers who take it upon themselves to offer help from afar, often without ever leaving their living rooms, or in the case of Leesa Astredo, of getting out of her bathrobe. "Sometimes I'll get on the computer at the beginning of the earthquake and spend 20, 30 hours at a time working that one disaster." Astredo organizes a team of virtual first responders called Info4Disasters.

Digital disaster responders are a growing force in emergency responses. These are self-organized, self-appointed and self-directed virtual volunteers and established aid organizations are still trying to figure out what to do with them. Many of them are like Astredo, a little older — she's 55 — and former on-the-ground volunteers or NGO workers who want to stay in the game. And then there are a newer breed: younger techie types — data scientists or mapping aficionados — who realize they have skills they can contribute in search and rescue operations or logistics missions.

"I think that we’re stepping into a new, unchartered territory when you talk about taking care of the digital disaster volunteer," says Lisa Orloff the founder of the World Cares Center that offers support, including counseling to disaster volunteers.

In this episode of New Tech City, get to know Leesa Astredo as she shows how a digital disaster volunteer works, and she explains how too much vicarious trauma can lead to it's own problems.

Plus, what the Red Cross thinks of all this and how they are adapting to these outpourings of digital aid workers.

If you like this episode, why not send a link to a friend who likes volunteering. And if you haven't already done it, go ahead and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, or on Stitcher, TuneIn, I Heart Radio, or anywhere else using our RSS feed.

UPDATE: Manoush appeared on WBEZ's Afternoon Shift program talking about this episode. Give a listen here.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello friend, this is an episode of Note to Self, but from when we used to be called New Text City.
0:07.0	Same good content, just the old name. Enjoy.
0:10.0	This is WNYC's New Text City, where digital gets personal.
0:15.0	I'm Anouche Summerodi. This week, responding to a humanitarian disaster in your pajamas.
0:22.0	We want to start with a story from a young Filipino man named Joseph Racer Sarnal, Racer for short.
0:35.0	I am 34 years old. I am a native from Tafloban city.
0:39.0	He called us up on Skype from an internet cafe near his family's home.
0:44.0	You'll hear an insistent rooster crowing in the background throughout.
0:49.0	Anyway, last year, Racer was far away from home. Really, really far. Nearly 7,000 miles away from Tafloban city, his hometown.
0:58.0	He was studying in Brussels when typhoon high-end hit.
1:02.0	My family stayed in the house because they don't really expect that kind of strong, a category for super typhoon.
1:11.0	Remember, this was a category for super typhoon, massive flooding. The whole city was flattened.
1:18.0	Racers' family gets caught in the storm surge. Their woodhouse is destroyed, and they flee to a concrete rooftop next door.
1:26.0	And they do a truck inside. My mother and my brother and even my dog. I have a lab right there to retrieve her.
1:32.0	And now here's the sad part. His mother is trapped in the water, holding onto a wire. His sister is too, but she's losing her strength.
1:41.0	She needs to go because my mother was telling her to come on. A drop some, some, some wire.
1:50.0	The sister doesn't make it. Racer's mother is injured badly. She's got a head wound from falling debris, and she needs medical attention.
1:59.0	And this is the thing about disasters. If help can't get in, the death toll usually goes up fast in the first few days.
2:07.0	Meanwhile, back in Belgium, Racers been getting updates from home on Facebook. But then the updates peter out.
2:13.0	He has no idea what's happening to his family. Did they end up evacuating? Have they just lost power? Or is it something much worse?
2:21.0	He panics and starts asking for help the only way he can on Facebook.
2:26.0	Racers message gets passed around Facebook friends and their friends and their friends. And then it reaches Donna Lee Weber.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.