| |
GHI is a global network of people alarmed by the world’s
growing earthquake risk, aware of methods that could reduce
human suffering, and determined to help. Central to GHI is its
Board of Trustees, which
is legally responsible for the organization’s management
and includes earthquake and natural hazard specialists with
strong ties to the academic, business, and government sectors
of the United States, Europe and Japan. GHI’s Board
of Advisors is a group of international experts in the earthquake
risk of developing countries; they provide technical guidance
to GHI, and, on occasion, participate in GHI projects. GHI’s
Staff, which performs day-to-day operations, is located
in Palo Alto, California, within easy access to many of the
world’s most experienced earthquake risk managers in business,
government, and academic sectors. Among them, the members of
the Board of Trustees, the Board of Advisors, and the staff
have literally centuries of experience in seismology, earthquake
engineering, risk management, and advocacy outreach.
GHI enjoys close association with Stanford University, particularly
its departments of Geophysics and Civil Engineering. Two of
the members of its Board of Trustees are professors at Stanford.
Located next to the Stanford campus, GHI benefits from frequent
professional and personal contacts with faculty, students, and
visitors.
GHI is unique in its goals, values, and effectiveness. No other
organization has its particular mission, free of competing political,
business, religious, or research priorities. GHI believes in
international assistance as well as in local responsibility.
Administrative costs are low because its staff is small in number,
well educated, and highly motivated, having witnessed the consequences
of both earthquakes and earthquake preparation.
GHI reduces death and injury by helping vulnerable communities
recognize their risk and the methods to manage it. In particular,
GHI makes a community safer by raising awareness of its
risk, building local institutions to manage that risk,
and strengthening schools to protect and train the community’s
future generations.
The GHI Approach
GeoHazards International (GHI) was established in 1991 as a
nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing death and injury
caused by natural hazards in the world's most vulnerable communities.
These communities, the cities of developing countries, are
the least prepared to cope with the earthquake risk that increases
exponentially with population density. Recognizing that the
needs of the people who live in such vulnerable communities
have been virtually ignored, GHI developed and is implementing
a four-step plan to reduce future death and injury from earthquakes
in the developing world.
This GHI approach begins with raising awareness. Starting
with local governments, GHI reaches out to residences and schools
to alert individuals to the risk they are facing.
- This first step includes a detailed, sometimes
building-by-building, assessment of the actual hazards.
- The second step is to reduce the identified risk, starting
with the community's most critical services. Since this requires
resources from abroad, as well as resources, commitment and
cooperation from local officials, GHI characterizes this as
a step of "international assistance plus local responsibility."
- The third step is assuring that new construction is earthquake
resistant. This requires the creation and enforcement of modern
seismic design codes, as well as oversight of local building
practice.
- The fourth step, and one that runs concurrently with
the first three, is involvement of local experts, engineers,
scientists and government officials with their counterparts
abroad. Such collaboration can be nurtured via the Internet,
but funded cooperative demonstration projects are most effective.
GHI is funded primarily by tax-deductible donations from individuals,
foundations and corporations. |
|
