Risk Communication for Empowerment: Interventions in a Rohingya Refugee Settlement

This article takes up one situation where the possibility of disempowerment is salient, that of Rohingya refugees who were evi cted from their homes in Myanmar and forced to cross the border into neighboring Bangladesh. In their plight, we see the twin elements of marginalization and displacement acting jointly to produce heightened vulnerability to the risks from extreme weather. Building on a relational model of risk comm unication, a consortium of researchers and practitioners designed a risk communication training workshop that featured elements of empowerment‐based practice. The program was implemented in two refugee camps. Evaluation suggests that the workshop may have had an appreciable effect in increasing pa rticipants' sense of agency and hope, while decreasing their level of fatalism. The outcomes were considerably more positive for female than male participants, which has important implications. This work underscores the potential for participatory modes of risk communication to empower the more marg inalized, and thus more vulnerable, members of society.

Source: Risk Analysis - June 23, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Raul P. Lejano, Muhammad Saidur Rahman, Laila Kabir Tags: Original Research Article Source Type: research