Full Circle Associates

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Katrina Information Map

Katrina Information Map: "Katrina Information Map - This map is intended for the use of people affected by Hurricane Katrina who have or are trying to find information about the status of specific locations affected by the storm and its aftermath. If you have information about the status of an area that is not yet on the map, please contribute by following the instructions below so that others may get that much needed information."

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Dear Friends and Colleagues:

We all continue to shudder at the images of death, destruction and suffering on the U.S. Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Most of us are also dealing with strong feelings of impotence, sadness, anger and even guilt. With every image I see and hear, I am reminded of the worst tragedies, natural and human-caused) that I have seen around the world.

At the same time we are heartened and proud of the thousands of people that are helping in hundreds of different ways, giving their time, energy, money, prayers and even a corner of their home to help the tens of thousands of refugees. The question I have been asked hundreds of times in the last few days from people around the world is "How can I help". Here are some immediate actions to consider:
First and foremost, take care of yourself and your family. Please make sure that you have given an adequate context and explanation to your children that are watching these horrendous scenes on television, . My daughter-in-law is an occupational therapist with children in the Houston area and told me yesterday that many, many children are being affected psychologically by the press coverage.
Many NPOs need volunteers for a host of different tasks. Anyone who is reading this letter has many skills that are urgently needed. Check out Volunteers of America http://www.voa.org/ or the CNN Help Center http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/katrina/help.center/.
Offer temporary housing to a person or family. Take a look at: http://www.hurricanehousing.org/
Donate canned food, materials and especially blood (urgently needed in New Orleans) to your local Red Cross Chapter.
Give a donation to a reputable aid organization. The Salvation Army and World Vision have the best record of use of funds.
The situation on the Gulf Coast is, in most part, still in the critical and survival stage. In the next days and weeks, however, the emergent psychosocial needs of the survivors will begin to appear and the challenge to help them is enormous. Although FEMA and many other organizations will have Grief Management and Critical Incident Debriefing teams working in the area, they will not come close to meeting all the needs.

GFSC is coordinating several efforts to use its Field Volunteers to train, prepare and mentor other professionals and caregivers in Disaster Intervention Facilitation (DIF):
Larry and Bego Meeker, with a group of other area GFSC volunteers, are spearheading the efforts in the Texas Gulf area with local groups and organizations to offer DIF Workshops different localities.
We have many new materials now on the GFSC website http://globalfacilitatos.org on Grief Management, Critical Incident Management and Caring for the Caregiver.
We have a dozen GFSC Virtual Mentors that are available 24/7 to support local professionals using our new Hot Conference audio-video-desktop virtual conferencing platform that is accessible to anyone with an internet connection, even a slow dialup.
We are in contact with other facilitator organizations such as the IAF and ICA to offer support to their groups as needed.
If you are a professional facilitator, you can enter the GFSC Mentored Pathways Field Volunteer program to prepare yourself for future volunteer opportunities. For more information, go to: http://globalfacilitators.org/VolunFormEnEs.htm.
Finally, we really need a really insignificant sum of money to help pay some of the expenses of our volunteers. We would appreciate your help and you can safely donate online at: http://globalfacilitators.org/donation.html.

For more information or for any requests for services, please contact me at: GFSC-Chair@amauta.org. We will continue to keep you posted and thank you for your continued support.

Warm regards,

Gil

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Dr. Gilbert Brenson-Lazan
President - Global Facilitator Service Corps
Email: GFSC-Chair@amauta.org
Website: http://globalfacilitators.org
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Through the development and support of local networks of volunteer facilitators worldwide,
Global Facilitator Service Corps helps build the capacity of communities
to work through their challenges and create sustainable solutions.; 2:48 PM