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| Building Safer Communities through
Safe Schools |
Like other infrastructure,
school buildings are subject to damage and collapse in
the event of a earthquake. An unsafe school in a seismic
region can incur the loss of the lives of hundreds of school
children
in addition to the potential damage to the property. On the
other hand, a safer school can save valuable lives of
children, provide a safe haven for the local community,
serve as
a temporary shelter and help to bring normalcy back to
society in times of
disaster.
In addition, the process of making schools
safe against earthquakes propagates the seismic safety
message
to communities.
The initiative to make schools safer against earthquakes
not only protects school children, but also educates local
communities
to protect themselves.
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| Project
on "Reducing Vulnerability of School Children to Earthquakes" |
United
Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) is currently
promoting the School Earthquake Safety Initiative through a
project "Reducing
Vulnerability of School Children to Earthquakes" in the
Asia-Pacific Region. The project aims to make schools safe
against earthquakes and build disaster-resilient
communities through a process of self-help, cooperation, and
education.
The project includes retrofitting school buildings in a participatory
way with the involvement of local communities, local governments,
and resource instituion, training on safer construction practices
to technicians, disaster education in schools and local communities.
These activities are to be carried out in Fiji, India, Indonesia,
and Uzbekistan as demonstration cases which will be disseminated
throughout the respective geographical regions through regional
and international workshops. |
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| To
ensure that school children living in seismic regions have
earthquake safe schools and that local communities build capacity
to cope with earthquake disasters |
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Objective 1 |
| To enhance the seismic safety of schools
through retrofitting of school buildings, disaster education
and training of teachers and students |
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Objective 2 |
| To build safer communities through
demonstration of school retrofitting, training of masons and
technicians, community workshop, and educational campaigns |
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Objective 3 |
| To disseminate a culture of safe schools
and safe communities through regional and international workshops |
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| Seismic Safety of School Buildings |
| The project includes seismic vulnerability
analysis of about 10 selected schools in the project city in
each country and the retrofitting of some of them which incorporate
prominent construction typologies of the region. This leads to
the development of country- specific guidelines on earthquake
safe construction which incorporates solutions to the practical
problems experienced during school retrofitting. |
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| Capacity Building of Communities |
| Retrofitting of schools in local communities
can act as a demonstration of proper earthquake technology to
residents. Masons in these communities get on-the-job training
during the retrofitting of schools. In addition, technicians
in each project city get training on earthquake design and construction
of houses. Consideration is given to local practices, material
availability, indigenous knowledge, and affordability of earthquake
technology during trainings. |
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| Disaster Education and Awareness |
| The project includes the development
and wide distribution of educational booklets, posters and guidebooks
on teachers' training and students' drills for earthquake disaster
preparedness and response. The guidebooks gain verification and
are updated through training and mock drills. The project also
develops an interactive educational tool for awareness-raising
on earthquake disasters and simple seismic risk assessment of
buildings aiming to motivate householders to plan the seismic
upgrading of their houses. |
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| Knowledge and Experience Dissemination |
| Regional and international workshops
on school seismic safety aim to disseminate the success stories
and lessons from the project cities to a wider audience. It is
expected that distribution of guidelines on safe construction,
training manuals for technicians, and education and awareness
booklets will help to generate a sustainable demand for the seismic
safety of schools and buildings. Educational interactive software
on general awareness and risk assessment at the household level
will be published in six UN languages to facilitate their wider
distribution. |
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