The barefoot guide contains practical steps to coping with flood episodes. It offers do-it-yourself coping strategies against flood incidents, beginning from pre-flood to during flood and post-flood periods. It is, therefore, a useful self-help guide for people in communities that have experienced or are experiencing flooding and; that are prone to flooding. It is a guide that can help in keeping impacted communities resourceful, alive and relatively healthy in times of flood and post-flood.
The steps in the guide are not just imaginably practicable but have been applied by several flood-impacted communities. In other words, from the knowledge of community people applied during their flood experience and other documented steps for coping with floods, this guide comes.
The barefoot guide is part of the outputs of a flood research carried out by Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) in collaboration with Academic Associates PeaceWorks (AAPW). The research was carried out in five states in Nigeria (Bayelsa, Benue, Edo, Kogi and Rivers State) as the 2022 flood was raging. Thus, we were privileged to see first-hand how communities in these five states were coping as well as hear directly from them about their various coping mechanisms.
In the face of continuing climate change and other environmental as well as infrastructural factors causing devastating flood episodes, the guide becomes an important piece for communities and parties concerned about assisting communities to survive flood episodes.
Download and read the guide here.
