NDRF raises awareness within school communities

GUWAHATI, May 5: NDRF organised a school safety programme at Kendriya Vidyalaya in Goalpara on Thursday. “Equipping children with knowledge and tools for individual and collective protection against disasters” is one of the objectives of the ongoing drive and initiatives of  R K Pachnda, Director General of tiol Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and the NDRF rescuers are imparting training of teachers, bringing disaster risk reduction into the classroom, organizing school safety drills on disaster risk reduction and turning school students into catalysts and initiators. Awareness is the first step toward action. Awareness can trigger interest, interest can lead to attention, and attention can prompt action. As schools are the best venue for sowing collective values, school students and teachers can serve as vehicles for building a culture of Prevention.

S K Sastri, Commandant of the 1st Battalion NDRF based in Guwahati said, “We have already outreached some of the Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar rvodya Vidyalayas of Assam and Meghalaya and educated more than 3500 students in last 20 days and more programme are to come with an objective to promote the integration of earthquake risk reduction into school curricula and to strengthen capacity building for school seismic safety through comprehensive knowledge dissemition, systematic education and training to the students on earthquake disaster.”

“Children face such calamities almost on a regular basis, and millions of them suffer with their families from their impacts. Learning about tural hazards, their likelihood, and preparedness and response measures could help them and their communities cope with risks better” said Seema Rani Das, Principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Goalpara during the school safety programme.

Recognizing and responding to these needs and commitments, the NDRF rescuers embarked on promoting disaster reduction education in these schools and will further extend this mission. “The programme has attracted enthusiastic participation from school students and teachers, and it helped the school students introduce DRR which confirms that children can play an important role in DRR” added Shri S K Sastri, Commandant.

During the programme conducted at this school, NDRF organized and initiated evacuation and mock drills on earthquake safety. School magement staff members cooperated with the NDRF to ensure effective implementation of evacuation exercises and the development and implementation of school courses on DRR. This was stated in a press release.