“Disaster Risk Reduction begins in School” Awareness Campaign and Art Contest

“Disaster Risk Reduction begins in School” awareness campaign and art contest was devised by a dedicated team of sponsors (ISDR/UN, UNICEF, DIPECHO, PLAN, IFRC) in search of a way to captivate the attention of children ages 12 and under with the task of creating a culture of DRR awareness and prevention in Latin America and Caribbean Region. Promotional products such as the disaster risk reduction board game entitled RISKLAND together with a regional Art Contest in which the young audience creatively illustrated the level of their comprehension of the theme, produced inspiring results.

The year long outreach concluded with a celebration of the activities and the winning artists whose works were unveiled on October 10, 2007, the United Nation’s “International Day for Disaster Reduction.” Each of the twelve winning artists received a hefty art kit equipped with the various mediums of art materials, sponsor’s promotional materials including t-shirts, pencils, notebooks, bags and workbooks. Additionally, each of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd placement schools was offered a Disaster Risk Reduction project grant funding projects that would continue the DRR awareness process and/or DRR improvements on the school property. Some of the projects include a continued DRR awareness campaign including emergency plan videos, formation of emergency planning brigades, training materials, and formation and implementation of school emergency plans in Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Panama and Trinidad in the West Indies.