Natural disasters often leave lasting aftermath, most of which do not lend to easy solutions due to the complexity of the issues. The sheer loss that is inflicted by said events could affect the economic, social, cultural, healthcare, even political facets of a society. Hence, natural disasters need to be viewed through multiple perspectives and mindsets in order to minimize the effects of the losses and to improve people’s ability to live in tandem with nature.
Drawn together by the same desire to exchange ideas on how to bolster society’s resilience, Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia) and Coventry University (UK) with support from the British Council through the Newton Researcher Links program held a international multidisciplinary workshop with the main theme of Disaster Reduction, Resilience, Well-Being, and Culture. The program was intended to foster a effective collaboration between disaster researchers, NGOs, local governments, and the people to achieve a holistic understanding as to minimize disaster aftermaths.
The workshop’s aims were to 1) Improve geographic monitoring on activity levels and other disaster-related levels, 2) Discuss the practice of communicating recent risks as well as how to develop and evaluate a culture-based disaster mitigation training program, 3) Show cultural issues and resilience in relations with practices that can maintain individual and collective wellbeing, such as by providing a psychosocial support.
This Researcher Links Workshop comprised seminars and discussions that include the field’s experts and practitioners. The main agenda of this workshop was to improve monitoring on disaster potentials and threats in Indonesia and to develop resiliency among civilians living in such areas. Since natural disasters often have ties with behavior and culture, the workshop was also a platform to devise strategic steps to mitigate disaster aftermaths through the power of culture.
Issues and programs that were discussed had a lot to do with how the victims cope with natural disasters, individually and collectively. Of course in this case, the resilience and wellbeing of the victims can be formed and maintained by looking into the potential said victims have. Due to its experience in handling disasters and its psychosocial effects, the Center for Public Mental Health was assigned as an organizer for the international workshop.
The event was held from 15-19 February 2016 at UGM Faculty of Psychology. Partaking in the workshop’s seminars and discussions were experts and practitioners hailing from both Indonesia and the UK. They were Prof. Subandi (UGM), Prof. Muh. Aris Marfa’I (UGM), Dr. Rahmat Hidayat (UGM), Dr. Gavin Sullivan (Coventry University), Dr. Yung-Fang Chen (Coventry University), and Dr. Matt Blackett (Coventry University). Participants of the workshop include 36 practitioners and academics of Indonesia and the UK from various fields of study, who would present and talk about multidisciplinary disaster-related research plans.
The event would not have happened without the full support of the British Council via the NewtonFund initiative. Through programs designed as part of the initiative, the British Council is contributing to the advancement of studies in Indonesia focusing on nurturing community resilience in disaster-related settings. This collaboration also encourages full involvement and cooperation between experts from Indonesia and the UK.