Reframing Disaster Stories: A Working Synthesis & Roundtable

Calling media professionals, climate leaders, researchers, funders, and ecosystem enablers: Every year, climate shocks disrupt millions of lives—yet the stories told about these crises often miss the complete picture. How disasters are reported shapes where funding flows, which solutions are prioritized, whose voices are heard and most importantly what we learn for the next disaster. Goonj Knowledge and Research Institute (GKRI) invites you to a presentation synthesizing insights from the global landscape of disaster narratives. Drawing from Goonj’s 27+ years of grassroots disaster response and resilience-building across India, this work-in-progress synthesis examines who gets to speak, which stories dominate, and which critical perspectives are left out. Crucially, it calls for a holistic, community-led, and multi-stakeholder approach to societal disaster narratives—moving beyond traditional top-down or bottom-up binaries toward a space where community-centered realities shape collective recovery, urgent needs, and resilient futures. During this interactive discussion, we will: Examine the global state of disaster stories, analyzing dominant angles, represented voices, and persistent narrative gaps. Discuss frameworks for community-led, multi-stakeholder storytelling that drives dignified response and long-term resilience. Explore practical pathways to center lived community agency in disaster storytelling, evidence synthesis, and policy design. This convening is ideal for: Media Professionals & Journalists – Storytellers, editors, and newsrooms aiming to reframe disaster coverage toward agency, dignity, and local leadership. Researchers & Academics – Scholars documenting climate adaptation, crisis communications, and community resilience models. Global Foundations & Philanthropic Leaders – Funders interested in shifting narrative power and supporting locally led climate action. Social Sector Leaders & Policy Advocates – Practitioners seeking to realign disaster response strategies with ground-level realities. Ecosystem Enablers & Collaborators – Institutional leaders building cross-sector coalitions for systemic change. This session takes place in conjunction with Disasters: Myths and Realities—a traveling exhibition of reflective photographs shot and curated by Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, Ashoka and Schwab Fellow, Goonj Founder, Anshu Gupta. Drawing from Goonj’s 27+ years of walking alongside communities through major crises—including the Gujarat earthquake, the Indian Ocean tsunami, the COVID-19 migration, and the 2026 floods across India—the exhibition invites participants to rethink resilience, human dignity, and community-led disaster response. This session is part of All Hands on Deck: Co-Designing Climate Resilience 🌏 A day-long convening hosted by The Goonj Foundation and BASACA (Bay Area South Asian Climate Association) during Climate Week NYC 2026, bringing together 100 selected global funders, venture capitalists, founders, philanthropists and adaptation leaders. Join us as we explore how community-led models and local adaptation models can define, direct and scale emergency response globally. The most effective adaptation solutions are being designed on the frontlines, by communities who know the risk intimately. The most investable ones are coming out of founders across the US–South Asia corridor. And the capital that could connect the two sits in a third room entirely. Everyone is working the same problem from a different end, and almost never at the same table. That gap is the opportunity. Hundred people, one room, one day: to use community-led design can shape South Asia’s climate resilience solutions. Whether you are a founder, investor, researcher, non-profit, media professional or policymaker and working on climate resilience, this is the room you need to be in for NY Climate Week. Browse the full day and register for the other sessions: https://luma.com/allhandsondeck Hosted by:THE GOONJ FOUNDATION: A US organization inspired by Goonj, a pioneering non-profit transforming disaster response and climate adaptation across India into a dignity-driven, community-led movement. Goonj leverages local wisdom, grassroots participation, and institutional frameworks like SARRD (Societal Alliance for Resilience and Response to Disasters) to build sustainable, long-term resilience. BASACA (Bay Area South Asian Climate Association): A global community uniting South Asian leaders across business, academia, science, arts, climate, and activism to foster collaboration, amplify impact, and drive systems change.