Shelter from the storm - PASSA

I've heard newborn babies wailing like a mourning dove
And old men with broken teeth stranded without love
Do I understand your question man is it hopeless and forlorn
"Come in" she said
"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

Vietnam, Bangladesh, Fiji, Indonesia, India, Ethiopia, Nepal, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives are the countries I have been involved with shelter: temporary, transitional and permanent for nigh on four decades..

Was it Bob Dylan's song of the 60's that got me involved in shelter, Shelter from the storm ?

Then I met an Angel.

Well it certainly was my French heroine, Corinne Treherne, who oversaw the construction of 20,000 high quality transitional shelters after the Tsunami in Aceh,  who gave me new meaning of 'shelter from the storm' for 100,000 plus people. Was she the type of woman Dylan may have been singing about? This is an article I wrote about Corinne in mid-2008. http://bobmckerrow.blogspot.com/2008/05/french-red-cross-heroine.html

Corinne Treherne, the International Federation transitional shelter programme coordinator hands a present to children's beneficiares during the closing ceremony of the programme in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, 2008,.


In IFRC we have been working hard to improve our approach to shelter and in this respect, Corinne Treherne, together with Sandra D'Urzo  from the IFRC Shelter department in Geneva, have made the video above which is on YouTube and is about PASSA (Participatory Approach to Safe Shelter Awareness) tool. Whether you live in Dhaka Bangladesh or Christchurch,  New Zealabd, you can learn a lot of basic information from the video above about community participation.
Already in Christchurch I hear politicians making decisions about the people's city without  consultation or participation. This is a recipe for another disaster.. 

PASSA is a recently developed, community driven planning tool for shelter based on the participatory approach used in other red Cross programmes.

The 2nd pilot for PASSA was conducted in Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society found it a very useful tool for assessment and planning, complementing the Vulnerability and Capacity assessment tool, and included PASSA in the community development initiatives.

Corinne Treherne
Some of us have had the privilege to come across this amazingly skilled women who can communicate and implement shelter with communities in our humanitarian work. An old woman who received a house from her after the Tsunami in indonesia described her as an 'Angel." Corinne Treherne,from France, has made the greatest impression on me in the last decade, maybe even three decades.. She is my modern day Joan of What an achievement! Bringing  teams together and training them to assist her construct 20,000 houses and giving 100,000 people a home after the devastating tsunami which killed over 170,000 people in Indonesia on 24 December 2004.

. One of the 20,000 houses that Corinne supervised the construction of.

. Photo: Bob McKerrow IFRC

Early in 2008, the International Federation’s landmark transitional shelter programme in Aceh came to a close, with the last of the almost 20,000 shelters being completed on remote Simeulue Island.

.Back to the YouTube video above:  The video, documented during the pilot in Bangladesh, illustrates the step by step PASSA methodology to provide the most user-friendly visual support to get familiar with its contents.

This video is an initiative of the Shelter & Settlements Dept and Communications & Media Dept, co-funded by the Global Shelter Programme and the British Red Cross. The Bangladesh RC have been closely involved in the development of the video and the content, and were instrumental in enabling the site visits and interviews..

This video is one of a series of similar products we have been developing over time to communicate to a wider internal and external audience the breadth of shelter and settlement issues from the perspective of the Red Cross/red Crescent Movement.

Having a house in Christchurch, being a ratepayer in Christchurch, having family and friends in Christchurch, my advice to planners  is look at temporary or transitional shelter. You have Peter Cameron from the Ministry of Civil Defence who worked in the Tsunami in Indonesia, Elizabeth McNaughton with NZAID who knows shelter well through her Tsunami work in the Maldives, and understands shelter, and Jerry Talbot from the New Zealand red Cross who was head of the IFRC Tsunami unit during the Tsunami. Use these talenmted people wisely. Christchurch is keeping people healthy through Portaloo's, temporary toilets, the authorities need to look at Portahouses, whether campervans, makeshift/transitional shelters of one form in another, as it will be years before all damaged or destroyed homes are rebuilt.

People need to be consulted about how their communities and houses are rebuilt, and transitional solutions need to examined while people are given time to build back better.


"Shelter From The Storm"


I was in another lifetime one of toil and blood

When blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mud

I came in from the wilderness a creature void of form

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".



And if I pass this way again you can rest assured

I'll always do my best for her on that I give my word

In a world of steel-eyed death and men who are fighting to be warm

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".



Not a word was spoke between us there was little risk involved

Everything up to that point had been left unresolved

Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".



I was burned out from exhaustion buried in the hail

Poisoned in the bushes and blown out on the trail

Hunted like a crocodile ravaged in the corn

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".



Suddenly I turned around and she was standing there

With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair

She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".



Now there's a wall between us something there's been lost

I took too much for granted got my signals crossed

Just to think that it all began on a long-forgotten morn

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".



Well the deputy walks on hard nails and the preacher rides a mount

But nothing really matters much it's doom alone that counts

And the one-eyed undertaker he blows a futile horn

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

I've heard newborn babies wailing like a mourning dove

And old men with broken teeth stranded without love

Do I understand your question man is it hopeless and forlorn

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".



In a little hilltop village they gambled for my clothes

I bargained for salvation and they gave me a lethal dose

I offered up my innocence and got repaid with scorn

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".



Well I'm living in a foreign country but I'm bound to cross the line

Beauty walks a razor's edge someday I'll make it mine

If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".