A Statement in Honour of Those Who Respond

Life has frequently felt quite fragile this past year. How quickly the familiar can become unrecognizable when disaster casts its shadow over us. How tightly we cling to one another when the earth gives way under our feet. 

Floods have carried off homes. Landslides have buried roads, bridges, and buildings. Fires have eaten up landscapes. Hurricanes have torn through coastlines. Earthquakes have broken places where children played. From Panama to Nepal to Jamaica, from Colombia to Mozambique, communities are mourning what has been lost and working to rebuild what remains.

Today, we hold these communities close.

We think especially of Nepal, where immense suffering continues. Hundreds gone, thousands missing, and many more sifting relentlessly through the rubble. We do not forget Panama, where, for hundreds, home has become a question with no answer. What can we say that can carry the grief of a nation?

When everyone else must run from, there are those who run towards. They arrive carrying what they have: their training, their tools, their knowledge, their courage. They arrive knowing that what awaits them will be difficult to bear, and that what is asked of them will exceed what they have to give. They search for survivors. They gather information to help us understand what has happened and where help is needed most. They coordinate teams, clear roads, deliver supplies. They work in familiar places made strange by destruction. They listen to those who have lost everything, who need food, shelter, news of their loved ones. They make difficult decisions about what can be done with the time, information, and equipment available to them. They carry the weight of what they cannot do, even as they continue doing what they can.

We do not always see what this work asks of them. We do not always see the exhaustion that follows, the memories they carry home. We do not always see how difficult it is to remain steady when they, too, are frightened and overwhelmed. 

Today, WeRobotics and the Flying Labs Network want to acknowledge and to appreciate those who show up in the aftermath of disaster. In particular, we want to honour our colleagues across the Flying Labs Network, who are often among the first to respond when disaster strikes their countries, bringing their skills, knowledge, and resources to the long and difficult work of recovery. 

Last year, when Hurricane Melissa devastated Jamaica, Jamaica Flying Labs led the drone response, capturing a clear picture of what had been broken and how it could be restored. From our corners of the world, WeRobotics, Flying Labs, and our partners rallied behind them, offering what we could to those on the ground. And over the past month, Nepal Flying Labs and Panama Flying Labs have been working closely with their governments as their countries each reel from two catastrophes in quick succession. Once again, we stand alongside our colleagues, offering what we have how we can.

There is something about working with technology that can make disaster response seem clinical, technical, even distant from the pain that accompanies such events. We speak of images captured, areas mapped, and data processed. We talk about workflows and systems. But behind the technology are human beings who carry their equipment into damaged landscapes, who encounter the suffering at close range. 

So today, we honour Nepal Flying Labs, Panama Flying Labs, Jamaica Flying Labs, and all Flying Labs that have shown up for their communities in the wake of disaster. For your courage and your care and your commitment, we thank you. We stand with you and with the communities you serve. You are not alone in this work. 

We also want to recognize South Africa Flying Labs for their work in promoting regional collaboration in disaster risk management. By pioneering the Disaster Risk Management Conference and Workshop Series in Southern Africa and co-organizing it with us year after year, they have helped create a space for many to connect and exchange knowledge, and they have paved the way for us to extend the conference to other parts of the world. It is through collaboration spaces like these that we can make progress towards strengthening the resilience of our local communities.

We look towards a world where local communities are better prepared, where disaster preparedness accounts for everyone, where local responders have the resources, training, relationships, and support they need before a crisis begins. Until that world is here and now, we keep learning, keep preparing, and we keep showing up for one another. 

*Photo credit: Sishir Lamsal - Geovation Nepal