Preparing children for disasters

This article first appeared in the Summer 2014-2015 edition of Fire Australia magazine. By Nathan Maddock.

A Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC project is examining how educating children on how to be resilient in the face of a natural disaster can flow on to mobilising an entire community.

Enabling kids to become active participants in disaster resilience and education programs could not only reduce their fears, it could also have a potential motivational role in mobilising wider community preparations.

That’s according to Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC project leader Kevin Ronan, a Professoriate Research Fellow at CQUniversity.

Professor Ronan is leading the Building best practice in child-centred disaster risk reduction study, which also involves researchers from RMIT, Monash and Massey universities, Risk Frontiers and Save the Children Australia. The project will carry out research on current policy, practices and evaluation frameworks. In building on research conducted in Australia, New Zealand and other countries, the research will also increase the attention given to children and their families’ needs in disasters.

“There are hundreds, if not thousands, of disaster-resilience education programs for kids worldwide, including many in Australia, which are not evaluated,” Professor Ronan said.

“Most of the research on these programs is short term—we do not know if these programs translate into saving lives, reducing injuries or reducing the psychological consequences of disasters. Nor do we know if these programs can save governments money.

“Our research is examining if programs do translate into saving lives, reducing injuries and other consequences, while saving government money, how can we get them to be part of policy and scaled up in a large way?”

Professor Ronan notes that there are two main reasons why educating children about disaster-risk reduction is important.

“It reflects the societal value we have around protecting children. In any given disaster worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, children represent 30–50% of the deaths. They are also the most at-risk group psychologically. Kids can carry impacts for a long time, and this can have an immense effect.

“The second reason is about children’s right to increasingly participate in their own and their community’s life. Preliminary research has shown that kids are motivated and get benefits for themselves and their families from learning about disaster-risk reduction. We think this is because disasters typically rank in the top ten major fears of childhood. When you help equip human beings with tools to deal with fears, and turn threats into challenges, people typically respond well. This includes children and youth.

“In other words, when you can turn a fear on its head and say that it is a problem with solutions, kids are interested and get excited about that.”

Professor Ronan said educating kids about disaster-risk reduction can have flow-on effects within communities.

“Kids are an untapped community motivational reservoir. Prevention and preparedness for a disaster is usually at a very low level in most communities, so we need to increase motivation for preparedness. We feel like kids are one such source.”

Research published over the past decade has shown that children are better equipped to deal with an emergency if they have been active participants in disaster resilience and education programs.

“This study is designed to evaluate the extent that education can equip children and families to prepare, respond and recover more effectively from some unanticipated event, including its potential flow-on effects for the larger community,” Professor Ronan said.

“The goal is to make a policy and practical difference. We want to know what works and then help to get it implemented on larger scales.”

The project is also linked to initiatives at the United Nations (UN), with the CRC as the Australian coordinator for the UN Integrated Research on Disaster Risk National Committee. Professor Ronan represented the CRC at Integrated Research on Disaster Risk meetings in November 2014 in London and Paris and at UN headquarters in Geneva. The meetings were part of the planning process for the next Hyogo Framework for Action, which will be announced at the third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan in March this year.

“We are pretty privileged to be part of the international conversation and we are going to seize the opportunity. There are plans for our ideas and project to be included as a part of a public seminar at the Sendai conference,” Professor Ronan said.