Awareness Workshop as an Effective Tool and Approach for Education in Disaster Risk Reduction: A Case Study from Tamil Nadu, India

Asharose Asharose,Praveen Sasi,Izuru Saizen

doi:10.3390/su7078965

Asharose Asharose, Praveen Sasi + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su7078965

Copy DOI

Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Jul 9, 2015
Citations: 38	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Kyoto University, Mahatma Gandhi University

Abstract

The core of empowering a community to become more resilient is rooted in disaster risk reduction and its education imparted using various educational tools, mainly through awareness and training programs. Conveying the available knowledge resources to the community by transforming it in a way that matches the local context in order to build a “culture of safety” is the hardest matter to be dealt with. It becomes the responsibility of the disaster management experts, concerned authorities, and researchers to focus more on disaster education by making the resources available to vulnerable communities. Taking this into account, this paper discusses an educational tool prepared for conducting awareness workshops. The paper particularly focuses on the educational tool application in the study area to illustrate its use in “real world” circumstances and to test its efficiency and limitations. It was found that such workshops can bring about a positive change in the level of understanding about disasters and the significance of disaster risk reduction measures. At the same time, it emphasizes that awareness generation is not a short-term affair. The sustainability of educational projects and programs is essential in inculcating disaster risk reduction as a part of people’s life and culture.

Highlights

Impacts of natural disasters differ by nations, regions, communities and individuals because of differences in their exposure and vulnerability [1]
Considerable difference was found in the answers between the pre- and post-evaluation test
Pre-evaluation test was taken before the workshop and in the workshop, topics regarding the prevalent disaster risk issues in the village, possible disaster preparedness, mitigation and risk reduction methods were discussed

Summary

Introduction

Impacts of natural disasters differ by nations, regions, communities and individuals because of differences in their exposure and vulnerability [1]. Whether a disaster is major or minor, or of national or local proportions, the people in the community suffer most of its adverse effects [2]. Policies, and frameworks are designed and implemented as well as other community based activities are carried out by governments, along with other effective stakeholders like non-government organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations; all aimed at empowering communities in one way or another [3]. Disaster risk reduction is described as the conceptual framework of elements considered with the possibilities to minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout a society, to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) the adverse impacts of hazards, within the broad context of sustainable development [4]. Always starting from people is essential if community disaster risk reduction is to flourish [5]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion