Part I: Understand¶
When a disaster strikes your club's area, the reflex is to act right away. That is the right reflex for relief. For economic recovery, you first need to understand three things, and that is what this first part is about.
Why the economy decides. A community recovers or empties out depending on how fast its incomes, its markets, and its businesses start running again. Chapter 1 draws on documented cases from Kobe, New Orleans, Puerto Rico, and Haiti to show what makes a shop reopen and what dooms it, and why a Rotary club is well placed to help without taking over.
Who does what, and when. Recovery is not a phase that follows relief: it starts during the emergency and lasts for years. The authorities lead it, the humanitarian system and the donors fit into it, and Rotary has its own organization. Chapter 2 maps these actors and shows where your club fits.
How to assess. Before deciding anything, you need to know what the disaster broke: the assets destroyed, the income lost, what it would take to restart. Chapter 3 gives an assessment method sized for a club.
By the end of this part, your club will have laid the first two pieces of its recovery file: the "who does what" map of its area and its economic assessment form. The following parts build on them.