An initial comic strip was developed that could be used either in newspapers or via the Internet to help younger children access DRR messages. 52 episodes of the comic strip were completed and initially distributed on the edu4drr.org website, as well as through social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The comic strip scripts and montages were created by Justin Sharpe, using an iPad App called ‘Toon ToolKit’. The characters were initially drawn and created by John A Abbott of Jot…

This blog post outlines some of the issues of systemic climate risk, possible approaches to dealing with it that aren't necessarily being utilised (around learning that is meaningful and actionable) and is driven from my knowledge and work on disaster risk reduction learning. It's a short blog, but if you are in a hurry or need a policy brief, this is provided at the top of the blog! I will work on an infographic and add…

The original versions of these are almost four years old now, but after some being translated into major European languages that are spoken globally I wanted to be inclusive of other languages. This relies on meeting the right people and for this I relied on my good friend Tatiana Saraeva who translated here into Russian language!  I am including the first seven below, with hopefully more to come soon. As…

I wanted to show my PhD research findings in an easily digestible and accessible manner, so I created this infographic:

The original versions of these are almost four years old now, but after some being translated into major European languages that are spoken globally I wanted to be inclusive of other languages. This relies on meeting the right people and for this I relied on my good friend Hayat Ibrahim who translated here into Bahasa Malaysian language!  I am including the first 15 below, with hopefully more to come soon. As ever I am thankful and appreciate he kindness of others in giving…

I have read an interesting blog written by Robert Glasser from UNISDR, with the WCDRR coming up in Cancun. I agree with many of the points made, and would like to see more culturally appropriate community/family led and oriented DRR communication and learning projects given more credence and attention. My research with #CERT and #Listos in the US is showing that these can have a more significant impact on long term cognition, behaviour sand action towards disaster risk and response.…

Today we have Silly Timmy disaster comic strips (episodes 1-15 in Italian).  Translation today, is courtesy of Lorenzo Guadagno. THANK YOU! Grazie mille!

For now, please enjoy and as always, Artwork by John A Abbott of Jot Studios while stories and montages by Justin Sharpe from edu4drrr. Sharing is free as long as…

A year ago I travelled to Indonesia to attend a workshop on culture and disaster risk reduction. This is my story....

Today we have a Silly Timmy comic strip (episodes 1-15 in Portuguese) this is fantastic as there are approximately 260 million speakers globally, of which about 215 million are native speakers. This includes:  Angola, Brazil, Cape…

Not much of an introduction needed for the comic strip. The following Silly Timmy Disaster Comics have been translated into Spanish by Ruben Gonzales, so a big THANK YOU! As always, Artwork by John A Abbott of Jot Studios and stories and montages by Justin Sharpe from…

Last week saw the introduction of the Silly Timmy Disaster Comic strip in German, now this week we have French with thanks to Maya Schaerer (a long time member of edu4drr.org) for the translation. I hope to be adding more as time goes on and as they become…

Silly Timmy in German ! Not a great deal to say apart from to thank Thorsten Ulbich (Vielen Dank!) for his efforts. Here are ALL of them!!  PowerPoint file with both English and German translations included at the bottom of the page!too!

As always, Artwork by John A Abbott of Jot Studios and stories and montages by Justin Sharpe from …

So after visiting CERT in Santa Barbara, having generated some 80,000 words of transcription, imported into MaxQDA for coding, then coded there is still an overwhelming amount of data. So I wanted to visualise how CERT training enabled TL phases to be triggered and then associating that to the outcome. A couple of weeks ago I produced a base model for this, then I…

I have added this as a blog as well as being accessible from  he menu bar as I am able to see page views and therefore see if the resources are being used! If you plan to use or have used any of the resources, do please comment below the resources! The resources have been designed to be used in a setting where sheets might be printed out and photocopied for classroom use.…

Extreme Event game is just the ticket to give your group a taste of what it takes to build community resilience in the face of disaster. Players work together to make decisions and solve problems during an engaging, fast-paced disaster simulation. 

You just need 1 hour, 12-48 players (age 14+), and some game materials that you download online totally FREE. There are three disaster scenarios available and it’s a great activity for…

This morning I noted the following article on The Guardian website:



"Government failing to protect communities at risk of flooding", MPs say http://gu.com/p/4kjb3



Below is my response with a link to the paper that outlines my research in more detail:



The need for a more ideal response from government, rather than the idea of response is what may be required. I recently pointed this out in a journal article in which I argue…

Transformation is a term widely used in resilience thinking as a form of response to living with disaster risks. Key to enabling resilience is adaptability, itself a learned concept and practice. Transformative Learning may be a way of unlocking small and large changes in cognition, attitudes and behaviours towards disaster risk while the experience itself may allow for requisite competencies and efficacy outcomes that allow learners to learn to be flexible and adaptable in the face of…

For the past four years project emBRACe (Building Resilience amongst communities in Europe) has been attempting to unpack what resilience means to a variety of communities. This includes individuals, groups, villages, towns, cities and nationally. Organisational structure, learning and flexibility were examined alongside the individual resilience in order to allow communities to evolve and adapt to the threats the may face from a variety of hazards.…

As you may know, I am carrying out research for my PhD, which is related to Transformational Learning. This is said to occur when learners are faced with difficulties which may have occurred via the training or learning experience being offered. I am interested in this as I believe it may open the door to learning that can be maintained over longer periods of time. I have carried out narrative inquiry interviews with Community Emergency Response Teams in the USA, as this is a type of…

I have just spent a couple of hours mapping a grid area in Nepal, so First Responders and Rescuers know here 

to look and how to get there...especially important in rural areas. Using my laptop I have mapped tracks, footpaths and residential buildings as many main roads already mapped. You can do the same: take some time to …