Fred Mednick Lecture: Redelijk Eigenzinng

ASAP:
Education in Emergencies
Keynote: REDELIJK EIGENZINNING

8 November, 2016
18:00 to 20:00
Foyer VZW
Werkhuizenstraat 25 1080 Molenbeek
BRUSSELS
redelijk.eigenzinnig@vub.ac.be
www.redelijkeigenzinnig.be
Dr. FRED MEDNICK

Founder, Teachers Without Borders
Asst. Professor, Johns Hopkins University
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Mednick will examine the relationships between education, international
development, and global aid in the context of education in emergencies. Based upon his
research and personal experience in (a) disaster preparation and planning (b) intervention, and
(c) reconstruction, he will explore central questions:
When does a natural disaster become or reflect a national disaster?
Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org
How have a lack of transparency and policy, as well as neglect and misinformation,
contributed to these catastrophes?
On the positive side, how have individuals, regional initiatives, and countries prepared
themselves and their people to tackle these crises and prevent a disaster from becoming
a catastrophe?
How has the Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) advanced the
instrumental role of educators as first responders?
1
(Introduction)
It is Election Day today in my country. At 3:00 am, we will find out if our next
president is Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
I cannot resist making mention of the ironic similarity between my countrys
national election and my topic this evening: education in emergencies. It is as if
we all knew this hurricane was coming, yet we did not prepare ourselves from
enabling a xenophobic, racist, conspiracy theorist, and sexual predator from
getting this far.
I dont know if you share my concerns. Forgive me; it was shameless for me to
exploit this opportunity to make my views known. But it was also therapeutic,
so thank you. I promise to my stick to the topic: how education in emergencies
intersects with natural and national disasters; and how education can prevent
disasters from becoming catastrophes; how education itself saves lives and can
re-engineer a safe future.
Ill explore this subject by focusing on the human, scientific, cultural, and
political components of one kind of disaster: earthquakes and a model of
education in emergencies that has emerged.
Equally important, I want to show all of you WHY his matters to you here at
VUB, especially here at VUB, whether you are an undergraduate or graduate
student, a professor or post-doc, whether you are a Dean or you clean rooms,
whether you are in the arts, the humanities, or the sciences.
Allow me to define emergency education in three phases:
--CLICK--
2
(before, during,
after)
Before: lets call this education FOR emergencies: preparation and planning
--CLICK-During: lets call this education IN or AMID emergencies: intervention. The
establishment of normalcy, child-friendly spaces, counting the kids, reuniting
families all of which are a critical, though only now emerging as a money and
live-saving underused component of the field.
--CLICK-After: lets call this education BEYOND emergencies: reconstruction, which
encompasses all of it: preparedness and planning, ongoing intervention, civic
participation, transparency, and the integration of science and safety
ASAP refers to: Assessment, Support, Awareness, Participation. The model we
have developed permeates each of these three phases and must be present and
central to all efforts during the before, during, and after phases. Miss one
element, and much is lost.
Last week, for example, while dismantling the displaced persons camp known
as the jungle in Calais, there was little assessment of the number of
wristbands required for children to be registered and obtain services. As a
result, children were escorted away, and separated from their families. UNICEF
then reported a rise in trafficking. Teachers, by the way, knew this all along. Not
enough teachers were not consulted.
Forgive me for being glib or a lightweight for reducing this complex field to a
four-letter acronym (ASAP) and a before-during-after sequence, but the
alternative of tunnel vision is tragic, especially as the stakes for natural and
national disasters get higher and higher.
So, with a basic definition and model, heres the challenge. While progress has
3
(Reasonable,
but)
been made in disaster risk reduction and early warning systems, the fact
remains that most of the money goes to relief.
--CLICK-
Education gets 2.1%, and most of it for school reconstruction. 2.1%!
Even though:
--CLICK-
Approximately 65 million children aged three to 15 are directly affected

by emergencies and protracted crises
The Syrian conflict has put 2.7 million children out of school in the
region. Al Jazeera reported last week that the resumed bombing of
Aleppo has killed up to 100 children per week. The school year has been
put on hold indefinitely.
In Nigeria, 1.4 million children have been displaced by Boko Haram

whose name, by the way, means western education is evil
In Nepal, the earthquake destroyed more than 90% of the schools in the
hardest-hit regions
In Haiti (last month), 130,000 children displaced. My 101-year-old father

and I discussed this a few weeks ago. He asked me: Freddy, why do
the biggest natural disasters happen to the poorest countries? It just
seems unfair. I could only respond by saying: Dad, I think the biggest
disasters happen to the poorest countries because theyre poor.
In Iraq, the League of Arab States, the United Nations, and the European
Union claim that, if Mosul is retaken, 500,000 children will need to
return to school. Meanwhile, they are using children as human shields.
--CLICK--
Girls are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys in conflict
situations. In many parts of the world, campaigns have been
spread that the cause of these calamities are womens sins.
4
(Girls &
Women)
Women are often the last to receive space
Relief usually issued to males
Disruption of social support networks
Domestic violence, sexual exploitation
And yet, at the same time, women have been instrumental in disaster
preparation and planning, intervention, and reconstruction. It has been shown
time and time again that womens high level of risk awareness, social
networking practices, extensive knowledge of their communities, and role in

managing natural environmental resources is often the difference between life
and death.
It reflects a relief-centric, hierarchy of needs mentality that has served far too
long as the go to strategy in response to emergencies. Originating in the U.S. in
(Hierarchy of
Needs)
addressing basic needs, then narrows toward self-realization at the top. While
the 1940s, the Hierarchy of Needs assumes, in triangle form, the necessity for
this characterization of the hierarchy of needs is not as linear as I am portraying
it. However, I remain skeptical. Here are my concerns:
It favors triangles (of more at the bottom and fewer at the top) over circles. The
triangle assumes a savior narrative and exclusion; circles reflect a community
capacity narrative and inclusion.
It favors the individual over collective responsibility. It is every man (often to
the exclusion of women) to himself. I believe this notion is wholly inconsistent
with and often counter to the orientation of indigenous cultures and the
value they offer.
It assumes the poor have no skills or expertise to offer, while the rest of us can
go for self-actualization. Here, the ASAP model upends and addresses the
insufficient assessment of skills, little support for local leadership, a lack of
awareness of the range of needs, and no participation.
It appeals to donors to take care of the basics only. We hear often that there
are more cell phones than toilets in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Those that
make this point may be implying that technology companies are predators. Ok,
lets grant them that. But statements like these give communities the distinct
impression that (a) others are making choices FOR them (b) that the
information age does not apply to them, and that (c) their priorities are
misplaced because they should dig latrines before getting online.
If someone tried to take judge whether we should have mobile phones, we
would protest loudly. Just to clarify further. I am not saying one is more
important than the other, but it bears mentioning that mobile phones have
provided communities access to information and each other in order to build
capacity, not to mention alert systems for natural disasters and civil disturbance.
The main point is about the condescension of making decisions for
communities, rather than with them.
So, lets focus on earthquakes. Heres what weve seen again and again and
again a recipe for disaster, worldwide.
--CLICK
(Disaster
repeated)
Dense populations
--CLICK
Shallow earthquakes
--CLICK
Unreinforced schools
--CLICK-Little science and safety
7
(India)
In 2001, I saw schools in India that had recently dissolved like sandcastles from
the Gujarat earthquake. The teachers I met knew little about the science of
quakes. None had knowledge of earthquakes, nor a safety plan.
8
(Kashmir)
In 2004 in Kashmir, an earthquake caused massive landslides. Dislodged by

aftershocks, large rocks and boulders tumbled from cliffs onto populated
communities below. It was a race against time. In 2.5 months, roads had to be
cleared and supplies distributed to heavily populated, remote regions all
before the snows would entomb the area for six more months.
We led a relief effort in Seattle for winterized tents and clothing. DHL donated
a plane to take supplies to New York. We called it: Warmth Without Borders.
A Pakistani Airlines cargo plane reserved its hull and delivered our supplies to
Islamabad. Trucks, private cars, and horses took it from there. But still, it was
only relief.
In China, the schools that collapsed in the 2008 earthquake were built using
(China)
fourth-level quality construction after tourist hotels, government buildings,

and companies.
I will return to China in a minute, but I can say this, now. After the 2008
earthquake in China, seismologists had installed testing equipment on the
buildings and warned the government that a 7.x magnitude earthquake was
going to take place.
10
(Haiti)
In Haiti following the January 12, 2010 earthquake, enough unusable rubble
remains (close to 7 years later) to build a two-lane highway from Los Angeles
to Port-au-Prince. 230,000 dead.
At the sign of any civil disturbance or natural disaster, many Haitians tend
instinctively to run indoors for protection, plain and simple. And one would
think that the school would be the safest place of all. Nevertheless, so many
children died there. As a result, many Haitians are building phobic, refusing to
send their surviving children to school.
During the hurricane in Haiti last month, however, where refuge in schools on
higher ground might serve as protection, several families chose to remain out
of doors, unprotected.
11
(Nepal)
12
(50% die)
13
(Megacities)
Here in Nepal, a girl stands in front of a door, going nowhere. In Nepal, 90% of
schools in the hardest hit areas were destroyed. Here is an alarming fact:
50% of the children who perish in earthquakes die inside their schools.
Earthquakes do not kill people; buildings and their contents do.
Allow me to focus less microscopically on individual countries and more
telescopicallyon regions.
Take a transparent map of megacities and place it on a light table. Then add a
map of seismic risks and educational fault lines around the world. They also
match.
-- CLICK -
Lowest literacy rates are located in areas of the highest seismicity
Today, 50 mega cities sit astride the earths plate tectonic boundaries.
Thats one billion people living in areas of the highest seismicity.

-- CLICK -
Lowest literacy rates are located in areas of the highest seismicity. In

the last 15 years, up to one million have died in earthquakes: 70,000 in
China and 230,000 in Haiti. Geologists maintain that climate change
and the rise of megacities could result in the first million-person
fatality in our lifetime.
14
(China)
Back to China and the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. In the two years leading up
to the quake, my organization had been working with teachers in China to
enhance skills in science inquiry methods. At 2:28 pm, May 12th 2008 (right
when schools were in session), a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck Sichuan
Province. 10,000 children were buried at their schools.
For those in the upper elevations closest to the epicenter, it was a thunderclap of
subterranean fury, triggering rock slides and creating new quake lakes from
disrupted water lines.
Reports say that a new microblog site, called Twitter, broke the story before
CNN or the U.S. Geological Survey. The tweet was tracked to a hilly section
above the city of Dujiangyan, the very center of our operations.
We lost teachers, schools, and children. I thought I was going to lose my mind.
I arrived at the disaster site within a few days. What remained of Juyuan
Middle School, where up to 900 children died, was sealed off and guarded. I
saw stairwells without classrooms, classrooms without stairwellsor nothing at
all.
Just down the street from Juyuan Middle School, parents erected this shrine at
another school, now unrecognizable.
--CLICKto play the video
The Director of Education asked me to please transform the science inquiry
program into earthquake science and safety. I ran around looking for people to
help nothing until I searched our global network.
Enter Solmaz Mohadjer. A geologist and classroom teacher, Solmaz experienced
the Bam earthquake in her native Iran, and throughout her travels taking
seismic measurements, observed that there was misinformation and chaos
about earthquakes in the areas where it was needed the most.
15
(Solmaz)
Solmaz developed an Earthquake Science and Safety program to connect handson earthquake science (and STEM), safety, and community development. She
built a network of excellent teachers, first-rate content, inexpensive
seismometers, and opportunities for true service.
Students use science, technology, engineering, math, and community service
and dialogue to ensure earthquake preparedness and mitigation.
The program uses eggs for the earths layers. It demonstrates vibration with
pieces of dry spaghetti, each with a raisin on top. Shake them lightly to simulate
low frequencies to demonstrate how buildings vibrate the most. Shake them
more vigorously to demonstrate high frequencies to demonstrate how and
when buildings vibrate the most.
Using springs, local toys, wooden blocks, and sandpaper, Solmazs team was
able to demonstrate the physics of tension, popsicle sticks, connectors, and
rubber bands for students to compete over which group can design the
strongest structure. For more sophisticated contexts, the accelerometers in all
smart phones can be used to teach physics, and seismology apps to record
shock waves. Imagine teachers and their students, around the world, using their
phones to measure and crowd-source earthquake activity.
Easily replicable table-top exercises can demonstrate interior and plate tectonics
and boundaries, motion, seismic energy, liquefaction. Students now only learn
ABOUT earthquake science, they connect the program with prevention and
planning and community outreach.
Lets hear from Solmaz herself.
16
(EQ Program)
17
(China learning)
Play the video

So, we returned to China and to the city where we lost so many people where
10,000 of the 70,000 deaths were students, teachers are using the popsicle sticks
and connectors to test the strength of buildings.

These teachers are working in a building completed just prior to the earthquake
and, because of its principal, who demanded better construction and
earthquake preparedness and planning, none of his 2,323 students died.
18
(Haiti)
In Haiti, a teacher is discussing building construction at a temporary school.

It bears mentioning that, within days after the earthquake, we reached out to
teachers with even a modicum of knowledge about geology or earthquakes.
While our evidence is based upon a small sample size, 100% of the teachers we
interviewed reported that they had briefed the children on what to do. In one
case, a teacher away from the quake zone rushed back to see a school beyond
repair. As he approached, a crowd formed around him. Surrounding schools
were tombs. In his school, just one injury.
Informed teachers who connect science and safety have saved lives:
In Japan, in the midst of the tsunami and earthquake, teachers

and students knew enough to race, together, to higher ground, leaving no
one behind.
In Maikhao Beach in Thailand, ten-year old Tilly Smith, on

vacation with her family from the UK, recognized the earthquake under
the sea centered in northern Sumatra earlier that morning. The beach
was getting smaller. Having just studied the phenomenon, she managed
to convince beachgoers to evacuate, saving everyone. At the next tourist
beach over, death.
19
(Gujarat)
20
(EQSS has
traveled)
And back in India, in the region where I saw the aftermath of an earthquake
that had turned buildings into dust, these teachers are preparing lessons on the
effects of liquefaction when an unconsolidated building is erected on wet sand.
The program has traveled to Haiti, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and
Russia, and has been translated into English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Russian,
Hindi, Urdu, and Kreyol. The program is available without cost. The materials
are inexpensive and do not require high-tech equipment. Most importantly, it
10
engages a network of colleagues who have trained hundreds of thousands of

teachers, school directors, safety officers, and community members.
We applied the model of assessment (prior knowledge, existing expertise),
support (school directors, community members), awareness (enlisting local
engineers and launching a community campaign), and participation (ensuring
stakeholder involvement at every stage).
The program not only connects science with safety for children; it connects
safety with community development. It restores faith in the power of teachers
as ambassadors of social welfare. And it restores the parents faith in the
school.
21
(EQSSI)
Heres the next step. In partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, satellite
companies, and global agencies, we designed the Girls Earthquake Science and
Safety Initiative.
The Girls Quake Science and Safety Initiative will attempt to bridge the gap
between an ounce of prevention (capacity building through professional
development in hands-on science and safety education and hazard mitigation),
versus the pound of cure (the black hole of costs in global aid following a
disaster). This is education from below the ground and up.
The plan is for 100,000 students (with an emphasis on the inclusion of girls) to
be educated in a hands-on, curiosity-driven, regionally-tailored earthquake
science curriculum. Plus, students will survey thousands of buildings in their
communitiessurveys that are vital to seismic risk assessment, earthquake
preparedness, and emergency response. Each school would be assisted by a
locally-accessible engineer-mentor who would meet with schools and the
community to translate the surveys into life-saving measures. The content
would then be uploaded to the global seismic survey measuring structural
integrity, based upon USGS inventories.
Curriculum, Technologies, Training
Physical Processes
Structural and Non-Structural Hazards
Risk Models, Data Collection, Inventories
11
Mitigation, Prevention, Planning

--CLICK
Mentors and Networks
Global agencies
Universities
Foundations
NGOs
Civil-society organizations
--CLICK--
Outputs, Outcomes, Impacts
1,000,000 buildings surveyed
100,000 girls educated
5,000 teachers trained
1,500 Android phones used
1,000 engineering mentors
The content is free and available in the public domain.

This initiative relies upon and strengthens local capacity: We not only engage
and support regional geologists and geology teachers, but also actively solicit
the support of local maintenance workers who become heroes for their work in
non-structural hazard mitigation.
Students are STEM contributors, not just learners, but instrumental agents of
scientific data collection of building.
Its measurable, even though you dont have to wait for the next earthquake to
find out. It can be assessed by levels of student engagement in the sciences (just
as those students in Tajikistan experienced), school attendance, student
performance, community practices)
For us, the key is to reach the people who reach the people; to leverage existing
networks; to identify talent and community assets; to focus on demand-driven
projects, rather than drive-by pilots; to emphasize science and safety in the
public interest; to support girls; and to make a clear connection between
12
education and development.

The only way those Haitian families will allow their children to return to school
is to ensure that those buildings and the children and teachers who occupy
them are safeand learning.
The earthquake science program I have described is one of many examples
illustrating the power of education in emergencies.
22
(Content,
context)
So far, so good. But heres what we have learned along the way. We discovered
that much information out there is inaccurate, out of date, and downright
dangerous.
Doorways are no stronger than other parts of homes or offices.
In earthquakes, some buildings sway, others sink. You have to know the
difference
Shallow earthquakes act in ways entirely different from deep

earthquakes.
One could argue: just improve ways to broadcast what to do in an earthquake

in ones region. Problem solved. Or simply apply more pressure on building
contractors not to skimp on materials and for governments to watch them. All
of that is essential, but one again - far from sufficient.
We also discovered a key factor that governs all work in international development
CLICK - That even if the science is accurate, content and curriculum alone does not save
lives any more than a textbook creates learning or a pile of bricks ensures a
stable building. You just cant tell people to duck and cover or go outside and
expect adoption.
Sure, science is fact. It is also culturally contextual on several levels. Thats
where assessment, support, awareness, and participation are critical.
23
(Bulls &
Mosquitoes
Here is an example.
In Tajikistan, it is widely believed that the earth sits on top of a bulls horns or
that a bull lives inside the earth. When the bull shakes off mosquitoes, thats
13
poster)
when there is an earthquake. It sounds weird or quaint, but the implications are
enormous. Here it is in their own words.
14
24
(Bulls &
Mosquitoes
video)
(Play video)
What is important about what follows is not so much the success of the
curriculum, but how it works within the context of culture. Solmaz never
dismisses the students beliefs. She works with what happens TO the earth,
people, buildings. Here, science does not trump belief (Sorry for using the word
Trump); rather, science explains what is happening, and how.
(Play video)
25
(Curiosity and
the after
picture)
With the dark screen at the end, say:

Their curiosity is inspiring, no doubt. But there is another message here. The
video ends with the words: We want to learn about it. Their words apply to us
all as well. We must learn about indigenous knowledge.
Unfortunately, while some information passed down from generation to
generation puts people at risk, indigenous cultures are often dismissed entirely
as non-scientific, an obstacle to progress, or simply as a vehicle for getting
services to the last mile.
And yet, these are often the same communities that have understood and
worked with their environment for millennia, yet now have to cope with humaninduced disasters that have ravaged their landscape.
Science and safety education must also find ways to navigate other factors:
power, rights, dignity, engagement, credibility, and cultural practices many of
which have stood the test of time.
26
(Culture as
Strength)
Those working in emergency education need to do far more than pander to

indigenous cultures. They need to learn from and RELY UPON indigenous
communities for cultural knowledge they could not obtain any other way.
-- CLICK-This traditional bamboo house in Colombia emerged as a partnership of
engineers and traditional building practices.
The Moken community in Thailand understood the unusual low tide as a

sign of impending danger of the wave that eats people.
15
In China, ancient dams and water systems held up, while modern
plumbing systems and schools crumbled
In Quito, Peru, stones assembled and notched to fit each other have
protected structures from earthquakes since the Middle Ages.
Cultures around the world have developed:
Wind-break structures, walls, and fences
Stories about the color of clouds that carry hailstones
The height of birds nests near rivers indicating floods
The number of moths indicating drought
The recognition of new plant species
Traditional slope farming to strengthen hillsides against erosion
Food management and distribution
It is no stretch at all to see the value of indigenous knowledge in development,

beyond education in emergencies, and it is here where I want to start drawing
parallels between the earthquake examples and all of education in emergencies.
Please bear with me while I show you how
27
(Seismic risk
formula slide)
SEISMIC RISK
There is a formula for seismic risk. The simplified version is SR = H x E x V
divided by Community Resilience. It is a calculated score that weighs expected
losses for a specified amount of time against hazard types and intensity, and the
capacity to cope.
H = HAZARD (structural, non-structural, geological) the source of the disaster
E = ELEMENTS (people, physical assets, combined with exposure and time) or
what happens next. Whats at risk.
V = VULNERABILITY (percentage of loss from exposure/proximity to hazard
in other words, the consequences.
/divided by COMMUNITY RESILIENCE
16
Community Resilience is mostly defined by amount of available services and

speed to which the affected area can return to pre-disaster or normal conditions.
This is a start, but heres my perspective:
--CLICK-There is NO cohesive formula for how to strengthen the numerator (hazards,
elements, vulnerability) or denominator (Community Resilience) and how the
direct influence of education on the numerator or denominator not just in terms
of cost savings or saving lives
There is little analysis of educational capacity building as a factor in
community resilience. In other words, where are the factors underscoring the
capacity to prevent a disaster from becoming a catastrophe in the first place? Or,
for that matter, the capacity to build back BETTER after the crisis?
and here is where I want to pivot away from earthquake science and safety for
emergencies, but educational fault lines, even education itself as an emergency
CAN BE APPLIED TO EDUCATIONAL FAULT LINES
HAZARDS
EH = Educational Hazards (causes): climate change, political instability, lack of
institutional or state integrity
EE = Educational Elements (at risk) and Vulnerability (the consequences):
people, culture, schools, teachers Schools as battlefields; unsafe buildings;
destruction of biodiversity; deeper isolation from access to information; greater
inequality; further marginalization of cultures; wider corruption
/divided by Community Resilience
(denominator)
What if Community Resilience included a substantial component of education to
mitigate against disasters?
Strengthening the numerator and denominator applies to education itself
because an natural and national disasters are bound up with education disasters.
Lets take EARLY CHILDHOOD. The formula has some relevance. For
instance:
Hazards and Elements = insufficient attention to public health: spotty hygiene
programs, immunizations, distribution of vitamins, or clean water; unequal
accessibility and affordability of pre-natal and ongoing care; little or no parent
17
education
Vulnerability = children at risk of falling irretrievably further behind, dropping
out.
The key is to make connections:
Between science education and safety
Between literacy and public health
Between seismic risk and education risk
Between educational resilience and victimization
28
(INEE and
others)
Almost exactly 10 years ago, I attended a meeting of the InterAgency Network

for Education in Emergencies (INEE) in Istanbul, at which time a document was
finalized for submission to the United Nations advocating for policy requiring
that the emergency cluster (the lead organizations directed by UNICEF to
respond to emergencies) to include
educators as part of first-responder teams, whether they are responding to a
natural or a national disaster
And since
The Hyogo Framework for Action was created to build the resilience of
nations and communities to disasters, and all recognize that funding for,
and emphasis on, education is wholly inadequate.
The United Nations Development Plan in India and the government have
put a considerable amount of energy into the instrumental role of women
and gender equity practices in disaster risk reduction.
Thanks to organizations like the SPHERE project, CARE, the European

Commission, Save the Children, and the Interagency Network for
Education in Emergencies, there are protocols, practices, and pocket
guides, assessment manuals, support structures, awareness campaigns,
and policy recommendations for education in emergencies.
Today, the evidence is irrefutable that education is not only a right, but a basic
need, like food, potable water, medicine, and shelter. In the midst of a crisis,
educators count the children, reunite families, develop a sense of normalcy by
establishing child-friendly spaces, and establish the reassurance of routine,
stability and structure. They protect children from exploitation and harm,
18
including forced early marriage, child labor, organized crime, and extremism.
Because of educators a reunited family makes it possible for that family to
survive; a child cared for and protected makes hope possible. Educators build
critical survival skills and coping mechanisms by which they can most effectively
disseminate lifesaving information about landmine safety, HIV/AIDS
prevention, conflict resolution and peace-building.
And even more than a basic need, education not only strengthens a communitys
resilience, but also its capacity to flourish. In the end, this is about dignity, and
nothing short of the reconstruction of self.
19
29
(Educational
Reconstruction:
Challenges)
The challenges of educational reconstruction are equally demanding:

--CLICK-Is it available? By available, I mean schools, teachers, training, resources, and
content. The quantity of schools and teachers mattered a great deal in the last
decade. Today, the central questions have to do with quality.
--CLICK-Is it accessible? Who is included? Excluded? Children from families in conflict
may not be comfortable with each other. Child soldiers returning to school are
often stigmatized and over age. Issues of identity, tribe, religion come to the
surface. Post-disaster or conflict, there is a great deal of self-segregation.
Reintegration, then, must be a priority.
--CLICK-Is it acceptable? Issues of identity are significant, and many are forced to
confront questions such as Who am I? Who are you? Who are we? How can the
system become acceptable to cultures and communities stripped of their sense of
place? How can traumatized refugees become comfortable with psychosocial
services and adapt to an entirely new culture? How can they trust it? Who
chooses acceptable content for students or teachers?
--CLICK-Is it affordable? What are the roadblocks? School fees? Uniforms? Bribes? The
school may once have been the place where genocidal ideas were promoted.
Many international development reports have detailed resistance to schooling in
favor of working the land or carrying water. Other reports contradict these and
describe how families are desperate for an education, but they want it to be
productive and safe. Parents ask themselves, if I make this investment, will my
childs human rights will be respected, or will my child be at greater risk?
--CLICK-Is it adaptable? Is this about replicate the old system or creating something
new? How can the old system blend with a new system? What will enable a
transition to take place? How do we assess what could be an entirely new role
for teachers? Will they be able to adapt? How can professional development be
20
accelerated?
--CLICK-Is it adoptable? What will it take to become durable and pervasive? Or will it be
an import?
Is it accountable? How will governments ensure stability? In post-disaster
contexts, governments or loan agencies have promoted distributed leadership.
How will they be accountable for promoting safe schools (emotionally and
physically)? Failing states are unable or unwilling to reconstruct and revitalize
education systems. In several cases, well-intentioned NGOs, well-resourced
individuals, and global agencies are attempting to fill the gaps, but are they de
facto absolving governments from the responsibility of taking care of their own
people? How can I be certain that a promise will be kept?
These questions about community resilience, education, vulnerability are (of
course), not limited to earthquakes.
30
(Refugees)
These questions and models matter.

Millions of refugees are escaping the horror of violence in their homelands. The
psycho-social dimensions of this trauma are extraordinary. This week, we have
learned that children are being used as human shields in Mosul. They must
escape.
My point is this: education for communities escaping from emergencies is a local
problem on a global scale. This slide represents refugee movement to Europe.
But the migration is not just from ISIS-dominated regions. Its also from regions
devastated by climate change. They are literally and metaphorically seeking
higher ground.
Where can we make an immediate difference? In classrooms and in non-formal
education settings. We can do this because teachers are a sustainable national
(and international) resource.
31
(Teachers:
Teachers are the difference between disaster and catastrophe.

They are the largest professionally-trained group in the world. They know who
21
difference
between disaster
and catastrophe)
is sick or missing or orphaned by AIDS. Teachers are the ones with their ear to
the ground, checking sensitively to their communitys pulse.
Under a tree or in a cramped room with a tin roof, in war-zones or in temporary
child-safe shelters following a natural or national disaster, or in air-conditioned,
high-bandwidth wireless state-of-the-art buildings, they remain the conduits of
safety FROM danger and safety TO flourish. As the acupuncture points of our
society and the glue that holds our world together
Teachers are nothing short of a development army
Nevertheless, teachers, schools, and education remain under attack abducted,
assassinated, threatened, and sexually terrorizedall
for reasons that offend
even the most basic sense of human decency. Girls who seek an education are
shot. Those who protect them are silenced. Civic discourse is considered
treasonous. In societies fragmented and failing, schools have been occupied,
bombed, burned, ransacked, and turned into storehouses of munitions or fronts
for fake polling places.
And yet, in the face of this irrationality and barbarism, teachers remind
themselves in the space of a heartbeat that they made a sacred commitment to
protect children.
32
(Aleppo)
Like here, in a cave school, in Aleppo. In every corner of the earth I travel, in
some of the most intractable and desperate places written off as beyond hope,
teachers like these are making a difference.
In regions terrorized by civil unrest, teachers have relied upon their finely honed
instincts to snap into action. They simply dont think twice. They make those
hand gestures and conduct those rituals they have practiced hundreds of times
with their students to capture everyones attention. And the children listen. They
look to the teachers.
Teachers look back into the eyes of those children pleading for a sign of
something familiar, anything at all, that could restore a sense of peace and order
to which they were accustomed. Teachers feel the heart beating in every child in
every classroom theyve ever taught.
They hold children, hide them, heal them, hope with them, usher them to safety,
22
even when grenades are exploding outside their windows and bullets pinging
and hissing through the shattered glass, even when thugs pull up in pickup
trucks with black flags and masks or white hoods and burning crosses. They
teach anyway, even when the bull is enraged and the building is swaying or
shaking.
Amidst all this, they teach anyway about what to do when their beach gets
smaller or the oceans waves rise enough to eat people, or the bull thrashes about
trying to shake mosquitoes.
Later, when no one is looking, they may cry for hours, throw up, or sweep their
hand in anger across a table. They may wonder night after sleepless, sweatdrenched night why they were chosen to experience such horror. But they
get up and teach anyway.
A backfiring car or an unusual rumble outside their windows may trigger a rush
of images and emotion they thought they had suppressed. They might find it
almost impossible to concentrate or communicate their pain. Or they work
manically until exhaustion, refusing to slow down for fear that the echoes of
trauma may bring them to their knees. But they teach anyway.
Teachers are often told that they are the problem. I say they are the solution.
And I have seen it first-hand. It is therefore our moral obligation to provide the
GLOBAL support of our teachers as LOCAL change agents.
33
(VUB)
And this is where you fit in. This university can be of enormous service to the
worlds teachers, not just in the area of emergencies. Why and how so?
- - CLICK - YOUR PROGRAMS show where your heart is. I am here because it is, in my
opinion, a fundamental obligation of everyone here in this room to help make
this happen here and around the world.
If you are a professor emeritus or a student earning a certificate or a B.A., if you
are a member of this community, in whatever department you matter. If you
are an engineering or medical or technology student, professor, or researcher,
connect with others here who can connect education and public health, global
development and medicine, education and engineering.
- - CLICK - -
23
Because VUBs mission recognizes the importance of learning as an act of

self-reliance, resilience, and resourcefulness.
Because this university emphasizes research, creativity, innovation, and

service
Because this university takes intellectual risks by connecting scholarship

with community welfare without fear.
Because this university embraces free and open educational resources
Because you sit in the capital of Europe
We know that the local and the global are intertwined. Our classrooms are more
diverse than ever. Teaching is now a global enterprise, and information is
ubiquitous. We know all of this. But we must act upon it.
No one will do this magically for the children. But we, here, can bring these
issues to light and make a difference. I think this university can shoulder part of
the responsibility, and do so with enthusiasm and joy. I know of no other
university that is willing to try. I love being here. I believe in you, and I want
your help.
34
(blue girl)
Ill leave you with this.

To use a geological metaphor, teachers are a societys foundation and its pillars.
Teachers dont have a PR firm to make their voices known, nor a publicity
campaign by which their voices can be heard. It is our duty to provide those
forums. Teachers dont have a truly representative voice at Davos or influence at
the G8 summit. It is our duty to fight for that representation. Teachers cant wait
for an Act of Congress because they are busy operating from acts of conscience.
It is our duty to expand our conscience.
These are troubling times. Sometimes I think life is a sewer, but its filled with
generous, ordinary people, especially teachers, who function as leaders, armed
with information, and capable of making an extraordinary difference.
for in the end
- - CLICK - -
24
in darkness there is light. In teachers there is hope.
35
(END)
Thank you
25

Fred Mednick Lecture: Redelijk Eigenzinng

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Fred Mednick Lecture: Redelijk Eigenzinng

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Keynote: REDELIJK EIGENZINNING

Dr. FRED MEDNICK

When does a natural disaster become or reflect a national disaster?

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

Education gets 2.1%, and most of it for school reconstruction. 2.1%!

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

Approximately 65 million children aged three to 15 are directly affected

In Nigeria, 1.4 million children have been displaced by Boko Haram

In Haiti (last month), 130,000 children displaced. My 101-year-old father

spread that the cause of these calamities are womens sins.

Women are often the last to receive space

Relief usually issued to males

Disruption of social support networks

Domestic violence, sexual exploitation

networking practices, extensive knowledge of their communities, and role in

long as the go to strategy in response to emergencies. Originating in the U.S. in

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

In 2004 in Kashmir, an earthquake caused massive landslides. Dislodged by

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

fourth-level quality construction after tourist hotels, government buildings,

Lowest literacy rates are located in areas of the highest seismicity

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

Thats one billion people living in areas of the highest seismicity.

Lowest literacy rates are located in areas of the highest seismicity. In

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

Play the video

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

and connectors to test the strength of buildings.

In Haiti, a teacher is discussing building construction at a temporary school.

In Japan, in the midst of the tsunami and earthquake, teachers

In Maikhao Beach in Thailand, ten-year old Tilly Smith, on

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

engages a network of colleagues who have trained hundreds of thousands of

Structural and Non-Structural Hazards

Risk Models, Data Collection, Inventories

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

Mitigation, Prevention, Planning

Mentors and Networks

Outputs, Outcomes, Impacts

1,000,000 buildings surveyed

100,000 girls educated

5,000 teachers trained

1,500 Android phones used

1,000 engineering mentors

The content is free and available in the public domain.

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

education and development.

Doorways are no stronger than other parts of homes or offices.

Shallow earthquakes act in ways entirely different from deep

One could argue: just improve ways to broadcast what to do in an earthquake

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

With the dark screen at the end, say:

Those working in emergency education need to do far more than pander to

The Moken community in Thailand understood the unusual low tide as a

Dr. Fred Mednick | c. 206-356-4731 | e. fred@twb.org

Cultures around the world have developed:

Wind-break structures, walls, and fences

Stories about the color of clouds that carry hailstones

The height of birds nests near rivers indicating floods

The number of moths indicating drought