There were three students who had the opportunity to participate on Southern Adventist University’s first Disaster Response Team last week. They were able to help those that got affected by Hurricane Florence. These students were deployed to do muck outs. The students were deployed to do muck outs, which involve removing debris after flood waters recede. They removed the wet carpet, cut down trees, and cleaned up yards.
One of those students, social work junior Samir Khalil, said, “This experience really helped show me the power natural disasters have over humans, but the power of God showed much stronger with all the volunteers jumping into the mess to help as many people as they could.”
Laura Racovita-Szilagyi, a professor in the School of Social Work, hopes that this program begins to grow and the word spreads. There are nine students that have taken the course and are ready to be deployed, or already have been deployed.
Courtney Calvert, graduate student studying for her masters in Global Community Development, was also deployed. “I am very appreciative of the great team I got to work with and am very glad that Southern provided this opportunity,” Calvert said. “For me, studying for a career as a development professional with a focus on disaster mitigation, this was an invaluable experience to get firsthand experience with disaster relief.”
Southern’s Disaster Response Team began about three and a half years ago as an idea–one that would lead to students and faculty helping those in need after a natural disaster strikes.
The program initially began with disaster simulations that allowed students to react to different scenarios. The first group of students who participated in these simulations included social work, nursing and education students. The education students, along with Light Volunteers, pretended to be the victims and observers because the simulations were based in classroom settings.
Laura Racovita-Szilagyi, an associate professor in the School of Social Work, said, “The Light Volunteers made these experiences very real. These simulations have been done every semester for the last four years.”
Last winter semester Jim Ingersoll, 2Serve program director, was invited to participate and help supervise in Southern’s disaster simulations. In April 2018 Racovita-Szilagyi and Ingersoll decided to partner and do something with the students at Southern. Ingersoll has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the state of Florida. He suggested Southern create an MOU with 2Serve to open shelters when a disaster strikes Florida.
The Disaster Response Team began taking shape over the summer. The team has evolved from social work, nursing, education and Light Volunteers to the Christian Service Program, Global Community Development, counseling and Uquest Missions.
Racovita-Szilagyi said Southern and 2Serve’s MOU was established to “promote and train students and staff to help out in disasters in conjunction with 2Serve.”
Image credit: Laura Racovita-Szilagyi