International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction

“If a natural disaster strikes the community, reach out to your friends, neighbours, and strangers. Lend a helping hand.”

International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction, held every year on 13 October is dedicated to creating awareness among children. It is an opportunity to focus on the importance of local knowledge in disaster risk reduction and to create awareness among people on taking measures to reduce the risk. 

Various activities were conducted to educate and train the students at The Indian School-Second Shift for an unforeseen emergency like fire, earthquake or any other natural calamities. As a part of the Eco Club activity, ‘Bharat ka Amrut Mahotsav’ to celebrate 75 years of independence, students observed this special day by discussing natural disasters. It is hoped that this will go a long way to help meet challenges in adverse situations and in coping with these during the times of disaster.

Students were sensitised through videos on solutions such as conserving forests, wetlands and coral reefs which can help communities prepare for and cope with disasters.

The children were made aware of the preventive measures and ways to address the climate emergency and its residual effects. To create awareness among students about this important issue students made posters on home safety and disaster risk reduction.

The importance of saving the environment and the deterioration of the environment that has impacted the biosphere was told to students in an interactive session. 

As educators, we need to give children and young adults the skills to keep themselves safe. Knowing how to recognise trouble, knowing how to avoid it or minimize it, and knowing how to handle it when it comes knocking are key life skills.