Functional clothing for natural disaster survivors

Abstract

Purpose

Natural disasters, occurring with increasing frequency are mobilizing humanitarian agencies to provide relief response. Current protocols that rely heavily on donated clothing as clothing aid are neither effective nor efficient. The purpose of this paper is to investigate survivors’ clothing needs during the relief phase of a natural disaster in order that current protocol might be improved. The focus is on clothing use from the perspectives of survivors who will wear it, relief workers and aid agencies that will disperse it.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative study included needs analysis focus groups with survivors, interviews with relief aid workers and senior humanitarian agency administrators. All respondents were residents of and/or impacted by the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. Questions focused on relief aid protocol, clothing needs and mandatory requirements for a design solution.

Findings

Data gathered revealed a myriad of design priorities and participants emphasized that garments be culturally and climatically appropriate and universal in design. Based on these criteria, a prototype (named Survival Plus) was created using the Functional, Expressive and Aesthetic design framework as proposed by Lamb and Kallal (1992).

Research limitations/implications

Further research may be undertaken to field test proposed Survival Plus prototype to evaluate the design and subsequent findings be incorporated in its design.

Originality/value

Academic knowledge about this aspect of disaster management and response is scarce. This participatory study of clothing needs of survivors is of particular benefit to emergency preparedness initiatives and humanitarian aid providers in their delivery of clothing aid.

Citation

Ahsan, N. and Tullio-Pow, S. (2015), "Functional clothing for natural disaster survivors", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 306-319. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-01-2013-0004