Dear Partners, Friends and Colleagues,

According to ReliefWeb , the countries that were affected by floods in the months of September, October and November 2009 included Serbia, Iraq, Thailand, Somalia, Paraguay, Nepal, India, Haiti, Kenya, Azerbaijan, Mexico and Turkey. During the same period, there were Hurricane Ida, Typhoon Mirinae, Indonesia Sumatra Earthquake, South Pacific's Tsunami and Bhutan's earthquake.  The British Red Cross reports that in the West African countries of Senegal and Burkina Faso alone, more than 200,000 people were rendered homeless in September 2009 by torrential rains and floods which destroyed homes, crops and drinking water.  Similarly, an earthquake in China's Sichuan province in 2008 killed 90,000 people while millions remain homeless. 

In the United States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 2009 Federal Disaster Declarations for the months of August and September included the following: Severe storms and flooding (in Kansas, Georgia, New York, Tennessee); earthquake, tsunami, and flooding (American Samoa); severe storms, straight-line winds, and flooding  (Kentucky); and, severe storm (Iowa). 

In this newsletter, we share with you a very innovative and inexpensive design proposal for swiftly and temporarily rehousing communities which are made homeless by such natural disasters.  The designer is Sayem Khan.

I look forward to receiving your comments on this proposal and other ways for responding to the problem of disasters and homelessness. 

I thank you.

Professor Adenrele Awotona

attended

several conferences in
October and November 2009

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