Thanks for this Heather.
Yes this is a community of passionate volunteers that work so hard. I have
worked in almost every HOT Activations and participated to the coordination of
many of these.
This Activation is very intensive. For the first 10 days, the core team people
were often working 16 hours a day. And sometimes waking up at night to assure
that nobody was waiting for an answer to an important matter. This Activation
is ungoing for almost 6 weeks now.
The media have recognized how sucessful was this HOT contribution to this
Activation. We work in a context were we always invent new ways of working,
bring new technologies, contribute to better logistic of the various
humanitarian structures that make intervention. At the same time, this is a
lot of responsability and stress.
I agree that we should all take care to have some rest. We should also
relativize about what we can do in such missions. I have learned over time that
you cannot do more then do your best. And I see that from an Activation to the
other we are more an more efficient and make the difference. This, the various
UN Agencies and humanitarian partners have recognized.
Let's also take care of ourselves. Let's also take care of people in our
organization that make such success with these activations. Let's be careful to
not discuss agressively. If we see people deeply involved in these activations
that show signs of exhaustion, let's support them instead of throwing rocks at
the, if I can say! If you are angree at what they say, I suggest that you
first contact them personnaly and try to explain, to have a friendly
discussion. If you see that these people look exhausted, tell them and try to
finish the discussion on the positive point.
regard,
Pierre
________________________________
De : Heather Leson <[email protected]>
À : "HOT@OSM (Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team)" <[email protected]>; Willow
Brugh <[email protected]>; Lindsay Oliver <[email protected]>
Envoyé le : Jeudi 19 décembre 2013 8h26
Objet : [HOT] Compassion and Self-Care
HI Folks,
I've been thinking a lot lately about compassion and the volunteer community.
This relates to HOT but also the wider network of Crisismappers. Last month I
wrote on my personal blog[1] that we participate almost by instinct and we want
to do something that 'matters'. One of the qualities we all share include
compassion. We know that each communication and each edit is making a valuable
change. We know that responders may use our work. This drives us to do more.
For those us involved in multiple responses a year (either in HOT or across
Digital Humanitarian communities), the risk of burnt out and health issues are
high. I know for a fact that I completely burnt out after the Kenyan Elections
in March. The Typhoon response has been going for well over a
month. The tone of the mailing list has become strong, pointed. I did not
engage in most of it because I was concerned that it was not healthy for me or
potentially others. But, I read all the notes. They have been weighing on me.
This note is not to reopen those discussions, but to ask us all to get out the
wide-angle lens and do a pulse check. HOT is
amazing passionate and talented community. I am in awe of the gifts you
continue to give.
As far as I know, traditional field responders go in shifts. There are trained
professionals to help guide their journey. They are well versed in the results
of not taking care of oneself. Can anyone speak to this with some resources?
The StandBy Task Force has an in house 'community/ self-care team'. These folks
work on taking care of the whole team. We watch the clock and remind everyone
to log off, take breaks, go for a walk etc. Sometimes deep in a response I
often found this advice to be extravagant. But, it forces me to really think
about the pile of dishes and the breeze outside. The SBTF also time-bounds
their responses to take care of the volunteers.
HOT activations are lead by amazing folks and quiet participants doing all
kinds of contributions. Each of you give hours and I dare say, weeks/months, in
a long haul response. I know that we have not coordinated formally in shifts
and more often we simply don't have a lot of visibility into all the moving
parts that make a successful HOT response. This includes all the conversations
around getting and using mapping. We also have not sought to have in house
self-care mechanisms.
This morning Geeks Without Bounds posted this article[2] about self-care. I
think it is an important read for all of us.
The space of digital humanitarians is new. We are all creating an ecosystem to
make this possible. It really makes me focus on what matters - each of you. How
can we better support each other? What outside help can we get to support those
who are deep in response?
1. http://textontechs.com/2013/11/why-we-volunteer-yolandaph/ and
http://textontechs.com/2013/11/heart-of-the-matter/
2. http://gwob.org/blog/2013/12/18/self-care-and-humanitarian-response-worker/
I am wishing peace and downtime for everyone
Heather
Heather Leson
[email protected]
Twitter: HeatherLeson
Blog: textontechs.com
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