TAGBILARAN, April 24 (PIA)--Some 100 school children met at the week-long Children’s Summer Camp 2015 that tackled how to prepare for disaster and how to cope with climate change.
As part of Save the Children’s commitment to prepare children of Bohol for future disasters, they facilitated the 5-day summer camp which started on April 21 at Agustinian Retreat House in Dauis town to help the children develop life-saving skills, leadership and communications during disasters and improve their knowledge on risks and hazards around them.
Participants include incoming Grades 4 to 6 students from 25 schools in Loon and Maribojoc towns, which are among the hardest hit by the October 2013 magnitude 7.2 earthquake.
The 26 barangays in those municipalities are covered by Save the Children’s School-based Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) project in Bohol.
The same pupils compose the Children DRR Groups who are trained to propagate DRR and climate change adaptation (CCA) concepts in their respective schools.
Save the Children Bohol Program Manager Roxanne Epe said that it is very important to tap children in emergency or disaster preparedness because they are the most vulnerable sector of the entire population during disasters.
“And it is also important and crucial that at the young stage of a person’s development, children should be aware, should be properly taught on how to protect themselves, how to be saved not only in times of disasters or in any hazard, but it is also important for them how to protect themselves and it is also a way to build their self-confidence,” Epe added.
Earlier today, the 100 children participants planted 100 mangroves in Barangay Napo in Loon, in celebration of the 45th annual International Mother Earth Day celebrated by the member countries of the United Nations.
After the early morning activity, basic first aid and emergency response training followed conducted by the members of the Telephone and Radio System Integrated Emergency Response (TaRSIER 117) to complement their DRR training.
The activity is seen as a vehicle in increasing awareness on hazards and its effect to children and their community.
Through this School-based DRR project in Bohol, Save the Children aims to help schools and communities to be better prepared for disasters to create safe learning environment, saving lives, and increasing resiliency of target beneficiaries reaching 5,400 school. (ecb/PIA7-Bohol)
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