4.3.2. Hierarchy of Needs in a Disaster Situation: Collaborations and Entry

Notably, we discovered that there was inconsistency in terms of food availability in different temporary shelters. Some community shelters had an abundance of donated food, while some did not have anything due to unreachability and the remote location of their shelter. We then called a nearby businessman we had met at another hall, who kindly offered to lend a gas stove. Notably, some shelters possessed uncooked donated food. Our fluidity between different shelters meant that we were able to advocate for those who were not yet in receipt of other basic donations. It became eminent that the role of a social worker as a broker is therefore crucial during disasters. While we were using our MA'AT Institute as our vehicle for community engagement, we visited communities with a preconceived plan of offering trauma debriefing. Undoubtedly, psychosocial support was required, but as social workers, we were confronted by the reality that some of the displaced community members in neglected shelters were reasonably unable and unwilling to participate in group work activities without being offered food. Some would report that they had their last meal on the previous day. It was undoubted that psychosocial services were also required, as these community members were suffering from trauma, bereavement, grief, and shock. However, their physical needs, such as food provision, water, sanitation, blankets, mattresses, etc., took priority compared to psychosocial interventions. As Lester (2013) states, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs argues basic needs are categorized into five categories: physiological, safety and security, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization. According to this theory, physiological needs (the lowest in the Hierarchy of Needs) were more powerful (prepotent) than the higher needs. This theory was actualized and realized through our engagements with communities displaced by South Africa's floods. Our presence in the temporary shelters/community halls meant that we were able to organize and coordinate services in order to prevent repetition.

It was only after the fulfillment of physiological needs (food provision) that psychosocial interventions such as trauma debriefing became possible and meaningful.

#### 4.3.3. Ethical Dilemmas, *Ubuntu*, and Collaboration

As mentioned earlier, individuals and families were displaced and left without basic needs. Our humanness and our value of *ubuntu*, in some instances, conflicted with our professional code of ethics. Notably, our professional code of ethics as social workers prevents us from offering personal donations or gifts to our clients, as this could have ethical implications. However, the magnitude of the problems was bigger than our fellow *ilima* role players. As an ethical dilemma, we all individually donated baby foods, unused clothes, and other basics that we had in our homes. It was, however, important that we did this while we attempted to balance morality and the reputation of our social work profession. It is also important to note that we were intervening to these communities, but we were also emerging from the same communities. Our empathy and acts of *ubuntu* were motivated by the realities that we were co-facing with these communities; the interconnection was inevitable. As social workers, we also did not have electricity and water in our own homes because the basic infrastructure of the City of Durban was also destroyed by the floods. During collaborations with stakeholders, we became coordinators, empathetic human beings, and professionals who were unsure whether to engage in philanthropy or strictly uphold the rigid "ethics of non-gifting to clients", even in an era of crisis. Based on these engagements, it was clear that the devastation of the floods called for collaborative humanitarian interventions; it called for *ubuntu* and empathy because individuals, families, and communities were affected holistically by the floods.

As a lesson, it became eminent that as social workers, we are instrumental in coordinating and linking people with required service providers.

#### *4.4. Trauma-Informed Social Work Principles in Unconducive Settings of Concurrent Disasters*

As argued earlier, the devastating effects of the floods in several townships of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa called for urgent multidisciplinary responses from multiple stakeholders, including ourselves as social work academics. One of the readily available responses in the time of crisis (and that we were ready to offer, as academics) was our expert skill and service of trauma debriefing. However, offering trauma debriefing in an era of pre-existing challenges and concurrent disasters, COVID-19, and floods was a complex challenge for us. Notably, according to Levenson (2017, p. 1) "trauma-informed social work incorporates core principles of safety, trust, collaboration, choice, and empowerment".

The spatial displacement of our clients meant that they and their families were housed in community halls and other temporary accommodation centers. Consequently, these inevitable challenges meant that principles of trauma-informed

social work, such as safety and choice, were compromised. A safe physical space for rendering individual and family trauma debriefing services was unavailable in community halls. Our clients were each using a corner with their families to mark their territory in the community hall. This impacted our primary method of intervention, which was group work. On the same note, Boshoff and Strydom (2017, p. 447) argue that "group treatment brings with it the possibility of the restoration of meaning in social participation", but also exposes the vulnerability and emotional safety of the service users. Bearing in mind the principles of trauma-informed social work, such as choice and safety, the above narrative indicates that these were indeed compromised.

Other than the effects of the floods, which were the main cause of trauma, the COVID-19 pandemic also compounded our challenges in rendering trauma-informed social work. The reality that our clients were housed in temporary accommodation centers meant that we had to be conscious of the COVID-19 health protocols as well. However, the magnitude of the floods resulted in the destruction of water supply infrastructure in some facilities. This then posed a health threat to our clients and ourselves. Navigating this dual crisis was a difficult moral and ethical dilemma for us. We were conflicted about whether to deal with multiple flood-related crises that faced our clients or to mitigate health and safety concerns, such as damaged water-supply infrastructure, which was beyond our control. However, our psychosocial interventions were necessary because we managed to "break the silence" and reconfigure a sense of community through our engagement. The reality of working in a context of dual disasters enlightened us about the flexibility and post-modern nature of social work (Hölscher 2005). In an era of climate disasters, it becomes difficult to employ and/or adopt all the protocols of trauma-informed social work, but the reality often calls for a context-specific intervention.

#### **5. Recommendations and Conclusions**

Our reflections unveiled that social work services are ineffective without strong participation and partnerships between multi-sector social workers, community leaders, caretakers, and community members and without inter-stakeholder collaborations. As a result, social work processes and indigenous processes such as coordinated *ilima* are crucial and must be institutionalized when dealing with climate change disasters and negotiating entry into communities. Stakeholder mobilization and community involvement committees exist at our university. Members of this group come from a variety of academic fields, including engineering, urban planning, drama, media studies, and many others. This committee includes the MA'AT Institute. Ensuring that this committee responds to disasters as a collective is one of the important lessons learned. The disaster response will be more comprehensive and successful in this approach. In turn, the university will be more relevant and gain recognition and respect as a key contributor to community building. We value the finances set aside for a Disaster Response team by the College of Humanities'

Deputy Vice Chancellor, who offered leadership during the MA'AT Institute's flood response. This dedication is one of the ways to make sure that the university team participates in the prevention, recovery, community reconstruction, and promotion of sustainable livelihoods.

These reflections illustrate that social workers need to be context specific, conscious of indigenous ways of living, and center the peoples' interests, cultures, and values in their intervention strategies. Indigenous knowledge systems should be integrated into the social work curriculum in the era of common climate-associated disasters. As academics, we recognize the need for curriculum transformation and research on African indigenous practices that are relevant to social work. In this way, we will respond to a call for a decolonial social work theory and practice raised during the "#*Fees Must Fall*/#*Rhodes Must Fall*" strikes of 2015.

It is now apparent that dealing with concurrent disasters, such as floods and COVID-19, provides significant lessons for the profession of social work. The topic of green social work and disaster-specific social work should be strengthened in order to tackle unpreparedness and raise awareness about the catastrophes of climate change that are now becoming common occurrences across the globe.

**Author Contributions:** Specifically, the contributions were as follows: Conceptualization and Literature Search: N.N., B.M. and S.Z.; Initial draft preparation (Introduction and Literature Review): N.N.; Methodology: B.M.; Individual Reflections (Preliminary Data Collection): N.N., B.M. and S.Z.; Individual Analysis, Coding and Meaning Making: N.N., B.M. and S.Z.; Writing-Up of Lessons Learnt: N.N. and B.M.; Final write-up, substantial revision and literary editing: S.Z. All authors have approved the submitted version and agree unreservedly to be personally accountable for the authors' own contributions and for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated, resolved, and documented in the literature. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** We appreciate the MA'AT Institute of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, which has served as vehicle for many of our community engagement initiatives since year 2020. Our critical reflections, as contained in this chapter, were made possible by the institutional support of MA'AT.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
