Children urged to prepare for earthquakes

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Media Resource Center at LabSchool senior high school in Rawamangun, East Jakarta, was noisier than usual when elementary students joined a workshop on natural disaster preparedness Saturday morning.

During the five-hour workshop, participants from several nearby schools and an orphanage were taught how to save themselves in the event of an earthquake.

They were also told to devise safety strategies at home, detailing where they could take cover if an earthquake struck, and were instructed to make safety kits containing food and first-aid supplies which could be used at an evacuation site.

"We also showed the students an animated movie called Kisah-kisah Bencana (Stories about Disasters)," program organizer Divya Dimple said.

She said young students were targeted in the campaign as it was best people knew about the risks of disasters from an early age.

"These programs are beneficial for people who live in Indonesia as they are vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes," she said.

She said lessons taught during the workshop were based on skills she obtained at the three-day Natural Disaster Youth Summit in Aichi, Japan, in May.

The event in Japan was organized by the International Education and Resource Network, otherwise known as iEARN, which is an NGO made up of teachers and students who share knowledge via the Internet.

Established in 1988, iEARN currently has members from more than 120 countries.

In Indonesia, the foundation is ran by the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO. Members in Indonesia, totaling more than 1,200, have participated in more than 200 projects in the last three years.

Members can participate in projects via the internet, such as writing poetry and short stories or by painting murals.

"The most recent conference was in Egypt last July," Jakarta's iEARN coordinator Suparno said.

Besides the services it offers online, the foundation often sends speakers to schools to share knowledge on issues such as the environment and language, Suparno said.

"We also tell teachers how to develop appropriate curriculum to teach subjects in the classroom," he said.

To make it easier to monitor the program, the office has hired several teachers from across the archipelago to work on specific projects.

"But we are yet to have members from Papua and Maluku," Suparno said. (ewd)