In order to engage with your community it is important that information given and exchanged is relevant, practical and manageable. How does one prepare for hazards such as hurricanes, storms and low frequency hazards such as earthquakes? The following blog lays these out and keeps it simple. These could be provided by one tip a day for each day of the week, or spending…

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Okay here are the 'Silly Timmy' Comic strips featuring a 'Fairy Godmother' that rescue him from his scrapes...shame we don't all have one of these!

All the comics were created by me (Justin Sharpe) on an iPad using an App called Toon ToolKit (more information can be found here) while the characters were created by John A Abbott of Jot…

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I am experimenting with using comic strips in order to generate interest in disaster preparedness. I have purposely decided on having a young girl in a wheel chair as my main protagonist, who is at first a little frightened about what to do in an earthquake, when the message is 'Drop, Cover and Hold On!' She comments in the first comic strip: 'If I do that in a wheelchair, I will end up on the floor!' There is an important message here about disaster preparedness with all sections of the…

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This set of resources is aimed at students in the 14-19 age range. The first consists of a mp3 file which are the 911 calls taken at the time of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. This is used as a starter to set the scene and to encourage students to listen to the calls which…

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Edu4hazards.org is a site that helps children understand what to do to protect themselves when faced with hazards such as flooding, earthquakes, tornadoes, lightning strike and more. The really important stuff about what to do is clearly set out with easy to understand instructions, while further information is included in a sub-menu for those who want to fund out more! You can visit the site at:… Continue

I sent this out on the EN-DRR listserve in order to try and get more people involved with he translation of the edu4hazards.org site. If you can help with translation or know someone who can help please let me know! The text for the site in English is here Edu4hazards_text.doc



Over a year ago I designed and built a website aimed at enabling

children and youth to know what appropriate… Continue

Teachers training programme

-Training on fire safety

Development of coloring book for the primary section

Preparation of School DM plans

-Schools to prepare DM plans based on the hazard that they are vulnerable to.

Steps for preparation of DM Plans

• Sensitisation meeting for awareness of Teachers, School Management and students.

• Formation of School Disaster Management Committee



Social Mapping - Schools

- Class rooms in the school… Continue

So what's the point of talking about education, drills, planning in schools etc if the students don't know what is expected of them. In most drills that I have see students are relatively passive participants. I have also been running training as part of INSET to teachers and leaders at my school which included table top exercises. I had teachers take on different roles for a variety of likely situations: Lockdown, Bomb Threat and a road traffic accident outside of school. As there is a high… Continue

Snow and freezing cold temperatures have brought treacherous conditions for many walking (see this news report). So my question to all of you is: What is the best footwear for these conditions? Working in a school children are wearing trainers, 'Ugg' boots (which seem to have no slip resistance and are suede!) and a variety of footwear without any real grip. Any advice is useful...please post a reply… Continue

I am currently writing a paper for a disaster prevention in education conference in Taiwan and so have been researching about new curriculum in general, alongside curriculum materials. What is becoming clear is that although there is an ever growing proliferation of educational materials, made to address different facets of a range of hazards and responses, this will not lead to education that helps people make changes to their lifestyles to become better prepared. This is for several… Continue

An initiative to beintroduced by FEMA and Save the children to reduce their vulnerabilities in the event of a disaster has been launched, but fails to really hit the mark in my opinion. An extract published below from the press statement sounds rather grand, but is disappointing as it does not recognise the capacities of children in any way:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is teaming up with the…

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I saw his on the BBC news site this morning...Can you spot where people have concreted EVERYWHERE and then try to drive through the floods only to get stranded....Education also needs to reach adults!



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7781388.stm



Have the Pitt Review people seen this by the way? This is a REALLY useful way of showing how flooding can be exacerbated by making the wrong decisions, from concreting your… Continue

This short video below (click on the link to download) shows what can be done by teachers to initiate effective education for DRR in schools and the communities around them. These are VERY young children and yet thay are learning how to respond, where the hazards are in their area, how to avoid them and where the safe places are to evacuate to. They make their OWN hazard maps and share these with their pers and with adults. They are NOT scared or scarred by this experience, but they do LEARN… Continue