1) Young people can play an important role in disaster management through awareness generation and developing early preparedness, but there is currently a lack of youth participation in disaster mitigation. 2) The document outlines four key approaches to creating youth awareness and education for disaster risk reduction: campaigns, participatory learning, informal education, and formal school-based interventions. 3) Campaigns use large-scale messaging through various media to raise awareness, while participatory learning actively engages youth in assessment, planning, and simulation activities. Informal education uses brief interactions to stimulate thinking, and formal education integrates disaster management into school safety and curricula.

1. Rejuvenating
the Youth Participation
in Disaster management

2. Rejuvenating
the Youth Participation
in Disaster management
V. Manikandane, Faculty of Fine Arts
Sri Venkateswara College of Education, Karaikal
S. Detchanamurthy, Assistant Professor
Sri Venkateswara College of Education, Karaikal
J. Antony Joseph, Assistant Professor
Krishnasamy College of Education for Women, Puducherry

4. Introduction
• Young people are actively engaged at local, national and
global levels in raising consciousness, running educational
programmes, conserving our nature, promoting renewable
energy, adopting environmentally- friendly practices and
implementing adaptation and mitigation projects.

5. •
• There is dearth of youth volunteers in disaster mitigation because of knowledge,
attitude and behavior deficit. Hence efforts are needed by educational institutions
to develop knowledge on disaster management among the youth and also build
attitude towards the importance of preparedness.
• There is no better resource in a community than young people. Without sufficient
community resources in place, disaster preparedness and risk reduction are not
possible (NDMA, 2009).

6. • So, rural youth can play a pivotal role to develop a distinct disaster
management strategy through awareness generation and
development early preparedness mechanism about the disaster.

7. Young people are assets: Preventing
and reducing vulnerabilities and risks
Young people are assets. This is twofold:
1) Recognizing that young people have assets i.e., not simply viewing
them as lacking capabilities or being deprived by circumstances;
2) Recognizing that young people collectively can be an asset to
development; at local, national, regional and international levels.
• Crucially for countries experiencing a youth bulge, where youth-led
conflict or crime may be a perceived risk, involving young people in
meaningful activities and programmes builds social cohesion and
embeds them within their communities. Young people are
innovative and creative in problem solving and solution finding:
they are the key to helping communities meet their subsistence
needs, and in doing so, improving local people’s long-term security
and control over their own lives.
• Yet at the same time, being young is a transitional phase of life,
which carries with it increased vulnerabilities.

8. Youth Participation- Empirical
observations during and after
Disaster
• During Tsunami (2004), in Tamil Nadu,
India and in the Maldives, youth
participated in the distribution of aid
supplies. Boy Scouts and Girl Guides also
in the Maldives collected and packaged
donated food, clothing and water in
service centre for distribution in the relief
camps.

9. Contd.
• In Bangladesh, youth are
recruited and trained as
peer educators in
preparation for
emergencies, such as
floods. They are given
duties for planning and
administrative oversight.
• There are so many
evidences we can see in
the old and current news
papers.

10. Youth education for disaster risk
reduction
Four key approaches are needed to create youth
awareness or Youth education for disaster risk
reduction, they are
• Ca paig s
• Participatory lear i g
• I for al educatio
• For al school-based interventions

11. Approach 1: Campaigns
The focus of campaigns is to provide uniform, large-scale impact with standard
messages. There are many examples of large-scale national and international
public awareness campaigns that have led to massive social change. Examples
include childhood immunization, the wearing of seat belts in cars, and smoking
restrictions.
Campaigns comprise a set of activities that may include:
• Publications, including billboards, posters, newspaper or magazine coverage,
information cards, flyers, bookmarks and brochures
• Curricula, modules and presentations, including slide presentations and oral
presentations
• E-learning
• Performing and cultural arts
• Games and competitions
• Audio and video materials
• Web pages and activities
• Social media and telecommunications.

12. Contd.
Because campaigns need newsworthy moments and high visibility,
participation is often focused around designated days such as a
commemorative event, a community- wide drill, a festival, fair or
exhibition, or through demonstrations and simulations. In between these
focal events, volunteers continue to deliver the key messages through live
interactions. These may take place in a range of ways, for example:
• At school assemblies and after-school activities
• At an outreach table at a local far ers’ market
• At cultural or performing arts events
• During outreach and advocacy visits.
In addition to Red Cross volunteers, actors such as community coalitions,
scouts, civil defense organizations, university students and members of
professional associations are often enthusiastic participants. Campaigns
can also make excellent use of participatory learning approaches.

13. Approach 2: Participatory learning

14. Approach 2: Participatory learning
Youth are especially motivated by approaches in which they themselves
participate in a solution, and especially when they believe it is their own
idea. The focus of participatory learning is to engage youth in discovery
and problem solving for disaster risk reduction. At the heart of all of these
activities is the o u ity’s own experience of empowerment.
This involves using language, stories, songs and traditions to strengthen
the emerging culture of prevention. This is typically accomplished through
tools such as:
• Action-oriented research such as vulnerability and capacity assessment
• Disaster management planning
• Implementing risk reduction measures
• Monitoring and improving on plans through drills and simulations.
These four elements of participatory learning can be applied at three levels:
• The organizational level – headquarters, branches, schools, businesses,
workplaces, homes
• The community level – being scaled up to reach villages, towns, cities,
school systems, and regions
• The population level – being expanded to incorporate entire urban
populations, by taking advantage of internet-based tools and social media.

15. Approach 3: Informal education

16. Approach 3: Informal education
The focus of informal education is taking advantage of brief moments and
encounters to stimulate thinking and engage people in discovery of
actions and behaviors to increase safety and resilience. Informal education
in communities and schools is the most flexible of all approaches with
respect to setting, audience and timeframe.
Specific tools that can be used for informal education include:
• Pu li atio s – posters, guidelines, flyers, brochures, booklets, activity
books, paper models, comic books, story books, coloring books, assembly
kits and teacher resources
• Curri ula, odules a d prese tatio s – teacher briefings and community
training
• E-learning – self-study curricula
• Perfor i g a d ultural arts – plays, dances, poems, songs, street theatre,
puppet theatre
• Ga es a d o petitio s – card games, board games, cooperative, activities
role play, drawing competitions, writing competitions, tournaments, radio
quizzes
• Audio a d video aterials – short videos, radio programmes, television
programmes
• We pages a d a tivities – web sites, online games, online quizzes
• So ial edia a d tele o u i atio s – SMS, early warning.

17. Approach 4: Formal school-based
interventions

18. Approach 4: Formal school-based
interventions
• The focus of formal school-based interventions covers
two areas: school disaster management and disaster risk
reduction in school curricula. These are considered to be
formal because accountability and responsibility for
school safety and curricula belong exclusively to
education authorities, so they require support for long-
term planning and capacity building. Whether there is
one such authority, many, or seemingly none, the same
issues of caution remain.
• Unless efforts are being officially and systematically
piloted or tested, inconsistency may undermine rather
than support the goal.

19. Contd.
• No matter how schools are organized, where possible a
proper approach should begin with a group of
interested NGOs and intergovernmental organizations
that approach school authorities in a spirit of
collaboration, in order to offer support and identify a
single focal point within the system. Expecting schools
to contend separately, with multiple uncoordinated
projects and programmes, places a burden on school
authorities and is ultimately unproductive.
• The goal is not to run a parallel system, but to support
and help develop capacity within existing public
education systems. The team should also approach and
involve national disaster management authorities.

20. Conclusion
•
• Our youth asset has to be equipped with the skills essential to participate in
disaster management activities. They can promote resilience through their
participation in community activities and by organizing young people’s groups, thus
to provide their own psychosocial support. In this connection the Universities
through extension programmes, NCC, NSS, Nehru Yuva kendras, Red Cross
societies, Scouts and NGOs etc has to train the youth volunteers to bring
hazardous situation under control faster by giving proper preparedness program
with routine basis and systematic approach.

21. • Further there is a need to establish a Disaster
Mitigation and Management Cell to monitor and
coordinate line departments. Further this centre must
be equipped with all infrastructures to provide
simulative training to youth volunteers in disaster
management.
• It is crucial to share information and experiences about
the projects, programmes and campaigns that work
best so that others can learn from and replicate them
without having to reinvent the wheel.
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