Self-motivated improvements in temporary Shelters

SANDRA CARRASCO's picture
Submitted by SANDRA CARRASCO on 8 June 2012 - 9:57am

Hello everyone:
I would like to know more about your experiences on temporary shelters residents' improvements on their environment, and how it affected to their quality of life, positively or even negative effects probably can be observed.
I am researching about this issue in temporary shelters in the earthquake and tsunami affected area in Tohoku, Japan, I could observe the community dynamics in the temporary settlements last year while I was on my internship for Habitat for Humanity Japan.
I know that it is different for each area, but in case of Japan, the government is involved on provide assistance to these settlements, but of course there are specific needs that can not be provided by them, and the residents have to try to fulfill this by themselves.
Also another issue is that a huge number or residents are aged people, and there is a tendency to be isolated and eventually death by illness or suicide.
Then, also about the soft shelters or transitional shelters look not to be the appropriate approach, since the safe land is limited and most of the temporary shelters are built on public spaces (like parks or sports complexes), or schools, where there is no possibility to get the ownership of the land.
Thank you for your comments, they would be really helpful for me.

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Mbubi's picture
Submitted by Mbubi on 23 October 2012 - 7:35pm.

Temporary Shelter

Hi I work with Habitat for Humanity Uganda, my experience with temporary shelter is that it is a negative aspect that dwindles down the socio-economic development of individuals in such homes. one example of such homes is the displaced peoples camps in Northern Uganda, in these camps, people were put in temporary shelters to easy the provision protection from the lord resistance army rebels who were attacking them, however the stay in these temporary camps were futile in their lives, adults lost privacy, children became permisive due to moral decay, hygiene was horrible, individual lost independence over their lives, they started depending of food rations provided by world food program and generally it incapacitated their levels of economic development as it was seen as transition and temporary life, no serious economic activity was under taken as life is seen as tempaorary just like the homes.