Community Based Evacuation Centre Construction Project

Project Summary

The project site is approximately XXXXXXXX and 1 km from the house of the group village XXXXXX. The project was identified to be the priority for infrastructure support to socio-economic development. One of the top most problems affecting XXXXXXX community especially during the occurrence of floods in the Lower Shire is inadequacy of evacuation shelters. The existing facilities like tents cannot accommodate the number of families or victims within the targeted area. The other obvious challenge about living in tents when displaced is that there is limited security.

The main objective of the project in the long term is to address the impacts of flooding through the construction of community based evacuation centre. The evacuation centre will have one evacuation shelter, 1 kitchen, four pit latrines, four bathrooms and one open ground area. The project will promote education standards, ensure sanitation and protection issues are encouraged, and promote youth development through sports. The project will target 00000 people. The total budget of the project is $00000 and 20% of the budget will be contributed by the community. XXXXXXXX therefore requests a grant of $00000 from the people and organizations of good will.

With the project, the displaced flood victims as well as the entire community will definitely be transformed directly and indirectly considering the benefits that it would create such as improvement on accessibility on basic services (temporary shelter, health, nutrition, food, clothing, domestic items); and an area or venue for different for programs and activities from the different government agencies and non-government organizations.

Project Description

Problem Statement

The area xxxxxxxxx xxxxx is affected by floods each and every year. The frequency of floods has been increasing over the years, resulting in loss of life, damage to property and destruction of the environment. Malawi Post Disaster Needs Assessment Report 2015 indicates that the January 2015 rainfall was the highest on record for Malawi and constitutes a 1 in 500 year event. The displaced people disrupted the school sessions since the class rooms were temporarily being used as the evacuation home. For over fifteen years, village primary school has been used as an evacuation point and villages still host the people that were displaced in January 2015 in temporary shelters. This contributed to some sanitation issues on the school premises and remains a challenge in the temporary shelters at the camp site. Lack of proper toilets at the camp offers privacy and security concerns to women and girls. From these events, the Village Development committee (VDC) and the Community Based Organisation through participatory vulnerability assessment, identified the need to have a permanent structure that can house the displaced people during disasters, and offer privacy and security to women and girls.

Rationale

The project is very important as it will build capacity of local people to prepare, mitigate and recover from floods. It helps in taking action to build safety and resilience, and reduce future hazard impacts. The project will ensure that there is continuous flow of school activities at primary school of village as no class room will be used as an evacuation shelter. The project will further improve issues of sanitation among the displaced as toilets will be part of the project. With the implementation of the project, government and the donor community will serve the money for other equally important development issues as the shelter will offer permanent home for the displaced people unlike tents which needs to be donated every year since wear out easily. The Malawian constitution sets minimum standards for shelter and protection during emergencies. The construction of this shelter will strategically be in line with the set minimum standards. The Sendai DRR Framework explicitly identifies disaster structures through land and housing policies, as key tools for “reducing underlying community vulnerability”.

XXXXXX CBO is a best suited organisation to implement this project since the function falls under it as they have in the past worked closely with the district council in some disaster projects in the area and it is still working with the district council and other NGOs in flood camp.

 Project Goal and Objectives

The main goal of the project is to improve the preparedness of people to respond to floods through evacuation measures in Group Village XXXXX in order to reduce the flooding disaster losses.

The specific objectives of the project include:

•  To construct the evacuation structures.
• To come up with evacuation measures suited to village community.
• To promote hygiene and sanitation.
• To create the playground for the kids to easily monitor their movements.

Project outcomes/Results

• • The primary outcome is that the communities will have a safe place for evacuation which will help to save lives and properties.
  • The construction of the pit latrines and bathrooms will promote sanitation issues which will reduce waterborne diseases.
  • The constructed kitchen will facilitate the proper food preparation especially during rainy days.
  • The evacuation block will also be used for other programs and activities i.e. relief distributions, antenatal and postnatal activities [village clinics].
  • The victims and the community will have ground which will be used for sporting activities and vehicle parking for disaster official and goods vehicles.
  • The communities will discuss and come up with measures of avoiding flood losses and the measures will be stamped at strategic places in the villages.
  • The project success will be measured with the following indicators: number of constructed shelters, pit latrines, bathrooms, open grounds and evacuation plans developed.

Project outputs

• • 8, 367 community members sensitized,
  • A copy of evacuation plan produced.
  • 1 evacuation block constructed
  • 4 pit latrines constructed
  • 4 bathrooms constructed
  • 1 Ground for open activities cleared.
  • 1 kitchen constructed

Project activities

The project activities shall include the sensitization meetings of ADCs and VDCs, which will see 8, 367 community members, 10 CBO, 10 ADC and 10 VDC members sensitized. Then Identification of a contractor through biding and endorsement by IPC, procurement of construction materials and construction of evacuation centre which comprises of 1 evacuation shelter, 4 pit latrines, 4 bathrooms, and 1 kitchen constructed and 1 activity ground created.

See annex for the work plan.

Target Beneficiaries

 The project will be implemented in the area of XXXXXX .

• The direct beneficiaries are displaced flood victims. It is expected that 8, 367 people are going to directly benefit comprising of 3,912 males and 4, 455 females.
• The indirect beneficiaries are people within jumbo villages with a combined population of 4200 individuals and 51% of which is made of females.

Project Budget (see annex -A)

Risk and Assumptions

•  The project will be a failure if the communities will not fulfil their contribution in form of bricks, sand, land and water. However, the chiefs, Village Area Committees and Village Development Committees have already started mobilizing communities to contribute the resources.
• We assume that the communities know their problem and that development comes from within the community. This will contribute to the success of the project.

Project Sustainability

The project will be managed by XXXXXXXX Community Based Organization with support from District Council. To ensure sustainability of the project, beneficially communities will make a contribution of sand, bricks and provision of water for the construction of the evacuation shelter, pit latrines and bathrooms. The building will also be used to generate income for the CBO through room hiring and renting when it is not occupied by the flood victims. It can be used as a storage facility for some NGOs’ items, wedding functions, for under five clinic and public health issues, village meetings and many more. Some of these activities will bring revenue to the community for maintenances.

 Consideration of Crosscutting Issues

•  This project will assist in youth development through provision of the ground space. This will help in preventing the youth from bad behavior so that they avoid contracting HIV virus and other infectious diseases.
• All the structures under this project will be disability friendly so that the right to access is granted to every member of the community.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The project will be monitored monthly by District Council and quarterly by Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA). Implementation will be done by XXXXXX CBO. The CBO will monitor every activity of project throughout the project life. It is anticipated that the community will be able to maintain the shelter beyond the end of the project.

At the end of the project the CBO will welcome the evaluation and auditing of the project and its accounts by the DoDMA.