[Zachariah Willetts]

Just created this post as EWB encouraged us (Strathclyde chapter) to share an idea we created that recieved very positive feedback last semester.
Quite a simple idea to get people thinking about shelters.

We made a powerpoint (email our committee email address ([email protected]) if you want it, I can’t attach it to this post) explaining a bit about how important shelter is (crucial for every part of normal life), and some of the issues surrounding it (security etc). We presented this, then divided the participants into three teams, giving each a disaster scenario for which they had to design a shelter in 25 mins.

(Email us if you want them: one is in Malawi after the floods last year, where they have to take into consideration the potential of further flooding; one is in Northern Nigeria with Boko Haram, where they have to take security into account; one (a bit of a joke) is in post-brexit britian with refugees arreving en mass from Calais, where they have to take into account scarcity of resources after Brexit (done in a very lighteharted way, it does not make any political point, it was just playing on the feelings at the time)).

About 15 minutes through the design time, we stopped the clock, and told the teams that an incident had occured. The Malawi team’s incident was that another flood was imminent – they had to come up with a solution to all the areas’ infrastructure and supply lines being temporarily removed. The Britain team’s incident was hat brexit had happened – now no steel, aluminium or other largely imported goods were available (again, completely a joke, I don’t even know where I stand on Brexit). The Nigeria team’s incident was that Boko Haram threatened an attack for during the construction period of the shelters – they had to think about how the shelters could be constructed without compromising lives.

Finally, the teams presented their designs (which we gave them cardboard etc to protoype) via skype to Luke who kindly volunteered as judge. There was then a vote by the students and Luke gave his opinion, along with feedback on the designs.

Don’t know if that’s helpful, it’s an idea anyway, and it worked well for us, we had very positive feedback.

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