It was like a "battlefield from a scene in a war movie," is how one disaster management officer described villages after the tsunami of 2009, the worst natural disaster for Samoans in living memory. Despite the challenges that natural disasters present in terms of progress towards the MDGs, an incredible surge of post-tsunami volunteerism has surfaced to help communities recover and ensure that they could protect themselves against future calamities. Volunteers have also organized disaster risk reduction workshops whereby communities can identify levels of risk, develop solutions and map out safe places in villages in case of emergency evacuations. As a result, a whole new growth of instruments of care and governance in urban areas has emerged from local volunteers, including the development of civil society organizations.
