Safer Together
"The cyclones keep coming. The conflict never stops. These communities are learning to survive both—by preparing together."
Rakhine State faces a devastating convergence of crises that few places on earth experience simultaneously: inter-communal violence, mass displacement, statelessness, cyclones, and floods. The coastal communities—especially women, ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities—struggle with poverty, damaged infrastructure, and limited access to everything from healthcare to education to basic livelihoods.
The state's weak disaster preparedness systems amplify every risk. When cyclones hit, there's no warning system. When floods come, there's no evacuation plan. When conflict flares, displaced populations have nowhere safe to go. Climate change intensifies the natural disasters while political instability weakens the capacity to respond.
But communities don't just suffer—they organize. This project builds on local resilience, using storytelling and intergenerational knowledge transfer to strengthen disaster preparedness. Survivors share their experiences. Elders pass down what they've learned. Villages create their own disaster management committees. Communities prepare to protect themselves—from whatever comes next.
