The project “Building capacity and removing barriers for people with disabilities in learning about Disaster Risk Management through accessible digital information systems” was launched in Vietnam on 12 January 2016. The event was organized at the office of Lift You Up, located in the Centre for Vocational Training and Rehabilitation for the Young Blind in Hanoi. The ceremony was attended by 33 participants representing the project’s donors, disaster risk reduction (DRR) and disability focused organizations; Assistive Technology Development Organizations (ATDO), consultants who will provide technical guidance for the project, and the media.

Through the ceremony, a representative of Malteser International, who was allocated funding from the UPS Foundation provided the overall information such as why Malteser International initiated the project, as well as its duration, intended outcome and relevant activities. Besides, Mr. Hiroshi, Vice Director of the ATDO in Japan, on behalf of the technical consultancy group presented what DAISY is, the benefits of using it with persons having print disabilities, and gave real examples of its application in other parts of the world.

The participants highly appreciated the idea of the project in using DAISY as a technical solution to remove information barriers for people with print disabilities regarding DRR and other social activities. Mr Hoang Moc Kien, a teacher from Nguyen Dinh Chieu school for blind children said “I heard a lot about DAISY and tried to access to it; however, until now I could not. It is great that this project builds Lift You Up’s capacity and provide equipment to start producing DAISY in Vietnam. Our people with disabilities can benefit a lot from this project”.

Following this opening ceremony, a 10 day basic training on Daisy technology transfer will be provided for core Lift You Up members who are the direct beneficiaries of the project.

DRR team

Malteser International in Vietnam

The event included different activities: display of pictures, good case studies, IEC materials, products made by the communities, including the mountainous area of Tay Giang; ceremony for awards of communications and community initiatives. All these activities emphasized on the goal of the 2015 IDDR launched by the United Nation that aim to:

• Raise awareness of the use of traditional, indigenous and local knowledge and practices, to complement scientific knowledge in disaster risk management
• Highlight approaches for engaging local communities and indigenous people in implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

In 4 hours of the event, through a variety of performances, the community people from different locations, in particularly the people with disabilities clearly showed that they are the one who know the best on how to help themselves to be safe in disasters. Therefore, if the DRR stakeholders give them suitable assistance, they can contribute to the community’s resilience. Ms Chau, Vice Director of Danang Blind Association emphasized this massage in her performance at the event: “In fact, our blinds can join hazard map drawing activities together with sighted people if the disaster risk reduction stakeholders assist us in participating, for instance, explanation of how to draw, description of the drawing process and preparation of some simple materials to enable the blinds to recognize and use”. The blind and deaf initiatives were received 1^st and second prize in the competition among 6 performances.

The representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Department and Ministry of Labours, Invalids and Social Affairs expressed that the community initiatives for disaster risk reduction shown were good and can be duplicated in other provinces. The 2 Ministries will continue their efforts to strengthen the participation of community, especially at risk group in the community based disaster risk reduction. This will help to use in maximize initiatives of the community in disaster risk reduction.  ”

Aprofile of IDRR 2015:

In order to raise the schools’ capacity and active role in self-protection, Binh Dinh and Phu Yen Chapters did not conduct the DRA themselves but instead let the school do it while the VNRC chapters assisted them. The evaluation team of each school includes 10 members selected from the school disaster management boards. These are the teachers who participated in Safe school training courses organized by German Red Cross and the 2 VNRC Chapters from November 2014 to February 2015. Safe school is not only a crucial topic for teachers and students, but also for the parents. Therefore, in order to conduct DRA comprehensively, in total, 210 teachers, 210 students and 210 parents from the 7 primary schools have been directly involved in the assessment.

[Nhon Binh no.1 primary school (Quy Nhon city)] Teachers, students and their parents discussing on the history of natural disasters at the school and the surrounding area with the facilitation of the teachers who are in the school evaluation team

Mr. Vo Chi – Head of Parent Association of Hai Cang primary school, shared that: “The local people sometimes do not understand clearly about disasters, risks, and damages. These activities really helped us widen our knowledge. Moreover, when disasters occur, children are usually mentally shocked. I think this assessment did prepare for the children to actively respond when disasters come. In addition, I think it is always true that if we have disaster preparedness and response (DP&R) plan, we can respond better and more actively so as to reduce damages caused by natural disasters.”

Mr. Vo Chi (second from the right) with the teachers, other parents and students conducting “Operation calendar” tool which aims at listing the different hazards and the different school activities occurring during the calendar year.

Ms. Pham Thi Thu Ha, an art teacher, eagerly shared that “The DRA is such a rare activity that teachers, parents, and students cooperated with each other to implement. I found that the children and their parents participated in the evaluation very actively and they really enjoyed it. I wish there would have more activities like this for teachers, students and parents to learn from each other.” She also talked about how the assessment changed her thoughts and behaviours: “As an art teacher, I was not interested in integrating the topic of DP&R in my lessons. From now on, I will actively integrate this topic into my lessons in order to guide my students what to do and not to do in DP&R”.

Ms.Ha (orange shirt ) with the students and parents drawing maps showing the different risks and vulnerabilities of Hai Cang primary school and the surrounding areas

Teachers, parents and students of Hai Cang primary school developing the “problem tree” to identify the school’s risks

Overview of meeting on DRA introduction at Hoang Quoc Viet primary school (Quy Nhon city)

Based on the assessment’s results, the school disaster management boards together with the teachers have developed their annual safe school plan. The plans propose structural and non-structural measures such as establishment of water filter systems or repairing electricity systems, etc. in order to ask for the involvement and support of the Departments of Education & Training, local authorities, other external organisations and donors to build safe school model more effectively.

Although during the DRAs the school evaluation teams have showed their limitations in methodology, assessment tools, information collecting skills,…the schools and parents did express their high appreciation to the activity as well as their enthusiastic participation. In short, this activity remains a good initiative which showed that the school communities (Board, teachers, students, parents…) are taking now an active role in assessing, planning and building safer schools. This is one of the significant achievements of the FPP in the school sector since empowerment of the project beneficiaries is a critical step in building safer schools during natural disasters as well as in general./.

Bui Thi Minh Chau
GRC PO in Binh Dinh

Addressing the opening celebration, representatives of the People’s Committee of Danang city and Disaster Management Center (DMC) identified the importance of community participation in disaster prevention, especially the participation of people with disabilities and the elderly in order to promote integration, strength and experience in disaster prevention.

The talk-show session were considered an active and practical importance to the participation of the representatives of Danang city People’s Committee and Disaster Management Center (DMC), representatives of the elderly with disabilities in the community of Danang city and Elderly Association participating in the village flood prevention committee.

During the talk-show, some contents were shared and discussed lively and practically:

• Representatives of the elderly shared life problems of the elderly (with disabilities) at home, in the community and when a disaster occurs; experiences of the elderly should be exploited in the disaster prevention and the needs of the elderly and people with disabilities participating in disaster prevention activities.
• Representatives of the People’s Committee of Danang city, Mr. Huynh Van Thang, Deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vice President of Center for Flood and Storm Control, Search and Rescue of Danang city shared the city activities in disaster prevention with the participation of the community; considered it as one of the core issues that the city has been implementing with the support of local and international organizations and determined the role of the elderly contributing in disasters prevention .
• Disaster Management Center (DMC) provided general information on themes of International Day for Disaster Prevention in recent years, the significance of the theme “The elderly with disasters 2014: Resilience for Life”, the role of the elderly in connection of generations, life experience, experience in disaster prevention and ensuring solidarity and mobilizing all resources in the community.

At the roundtable discussion after talk-show, numerous comments from representatives of  Association of People with Disabilities, the elderly mentioned the difficulties in access to disaster prevention activities, especially developing disaster prevention plan, training and education; representatives of the Ministry of Labour – Invalids and Social Affairs stressed the problem of people with disabilities and the elderly being currently given special attention and promoted the strength and ensured inclusion of people with disabilities and the elderly in the disaster prevention. To achieve this goal, developing a propaganda team and signing a memorandum with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is very important, and has been currently discussed and developed.

Talking to the participants, the Disaster Management Center (DMC) highlighted standpoints of the government directing the participation of communities, especially vulnerable groups in disaster prevention in the Disaster Prevention Law, National Strategy for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation to 2020, the project “Raising public awareness and community-based disaster risk management”, the important role of local government at all levels, social and political organizations, especially Association of People with Disabilities, Elderly Association, international organizations in the implementation of specific activities for people with disabilities and the elderly so that they could participate and contribute to practical activities in the local disaster prevention. These are considered the most important factors to realize the Government’s direction and expectations of the disability community and the elderly.

The celebration also includeds communication activities such as exhibitions, music activities, drama by the Association of people with disabilities and the elderly of city and provinces of Danang, Hue and Quang Tri that were made by themselves and performed. This is seen as a strong message about the role and expectations to contributing the strength in disaster prevention in the community.

Closing the ceremony, the participants evaluated communication activities celebrating the International Day for Disaster Reduction very practical and expect more activity for gradually including the disabled and the elderly in disaster prevention.

(Department of Information and Statistics – Disaster Management Center)

The main goal of this training was to provide the how-to knowledge to build up a safe school for the school staff, especially for the school Disaster Risk Management (DRM) board. The safe school model is made of several steps which can be summarize as (1) common awareness-raising activities, (2) school Disaster Risk Assessment (DRA), (3) participatory school Disaster Risk Management planning and (4) promoting the interest of school managers in developing a safe school.

A teacher presents her group discussion’s results on the risks, vulnerabilities and capacities of her school and the recommendations to build a safe school (Hai Cang primary school – Quy Nhon city)

Post training interviews showed that the participants, especially the school managers really valued receiving safe school-related knowledge and highlighted the change in their awareness in terms of school safety. They thus expressed their commitment in developing the safe school model to their schools, including mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management-related knowledge and skills in school curriculum in the future.

Mr. Truong Dinh Long – a teacher of Nhon Binh no. 2 primary school (Quy Nhon) shared that “The training is very useful for my teaching. I would like to integrate the knowledge I obtained into lessons at school so that my students will also know about safe school model and be able to protect themselves in case of natural disasters. Personally, due to this training course, I think my life becomes more interesting because I learnt new knowledge.” In addition, Mr Dao Thanh Tung, a vice principal and a deputy manager of the school DRM board of the school Le Quy Don in Ward 1, Tuy Hoa, also emphasized: “We will frequently integrate the safe school-related knowledge where possible in order to increase the students’ awareness in DRM leading to school safety”.

Training class for teachers of Bach Dang primary school – Ward 6, Tuy Hoa city

Moreover, Ms. Huynh Thi Kim Thanh, a teacher of Hoang Quoc Viet primary school (Quy Nhon city) said that: “Thanks to the training, now I know how to make a Disaster preparedness (DP) plan for a school in order to find solutions for better preparation, response and recovery from a disaster. I also learnt how to use DRA tools to assess school’s disaster risks, which provide important inputs for building up a safe school.”

Closing session of the training for teachers of Hai Cang primary school – Quy Nhon city

After the safe school training, each project primary school in Quy Nhon and Tuy Hoa cities will conduct a Disaster Risk Assessment in their school, a critical step to identify and understand disaster risks of the schools and build a safe school.

Bui Thi Minh Chau
GRC PO in Binh Dinh

During my participation in the project, it could be said in a few words “I’ve changed so much!” In terms of awareness, I no longer think of disaster risk management to be not only the responsibility of the local authority but also the task of every person including those with disabilities and in all countries all over the world. I also changed my perception and evaluation about the participation, presentation of persons with disabilities in activities of disaster risk management because “Disabled person could do many things like the normal persons do if we know how to be friendly, how to motivate and inspire their confidence”.

Regarding the application of training skills and methods  for adults, I first met many obstacles. However, after participating in training of trainers and taking part in training for the local residents of villages, I have changed my thinking and found ways to apply training skills from the project trainers. Finally, I learned the process “experience-based teaching” and flexible application of relevant skills. For example, relevant skills include: coordination skills, asking questions, listening, explanation, using intuitive tools, etc. This helps my trainees as disabled persons, management board and rescue teams of villages understand my speaking. Previously, when I was teaching at high school, I used to apply “group work” method but its efficiency is not high because of not drawing on much experience. When participating in training in the framework of the project, I clearly see the positive aspect when using this method. If utilizing it for group work together with other skills to mobilize the participation of trainees, the proposed training objectives will achieve high efficiency. During my participation in project activities, I also learned more gentle, calm and flexible manner to handle difficult problems that trainees raised during my presentation (learning from Malteser International staff).

The methods of working of Malteser staff has impacted my working in the past and the future: serious when working, enthusiastic and attaching special attention to the audience when training, learning from local residents to progress together.

Nguyen Van Ke, community center staff under CPC Duy Thu, Duy Xuyen district, Quang Nam province.

The way of communication was rather slow, took so much time, following a really old thread.

In the training courses with the participants of disabilities and families, many questions were raised to test the disaster prevention capacity of the local government.

Flood prevention activities were operated and guided by a non-government organization .

No sympathy for such things…

But something has happened when entering the training course organized by Disaster Management Board, then going to the part of mapping, and meeting to make plans and finally drilling, I totally agree. As for my experience, this training method is very interesting and completely fitted with the audiences. I used to be a soldier on the battlefield and I have experienced many years of advisory work. I did not have any difficulty finding that the planning methods of the project are obviously clear in task assignment. Details are as close to a military plan that I had studied and practiced everyday in the past.

Since then, my uncomfortable feeling for projects has gradually disappeared. My participation changed completely, from no particular interest in the project to voluntarily being involved in and trusting in its operation. I have made use of my knowledge for this project that had never been used before in other projects. I actively encourage my partners of Management Board to study hard to complete the program well. At the part of evaluating the drill results of the whole village, I said half-jokingly “The project does not bring any hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese dongs but it has done much more than that“. When the project started, our village leaders and I did not trust it very much. Since it has completed, it can obviously be seen that it has made a lot of changes in my awareness and risk management methods. It has a part in reducing the burden and stress of village leaders, including the Storm and Flood Prevention Management Board of the commune in terms of annual disaster prevention.  They are:

• Operation of Management Board of the flooding risk across the country is close and coherent. Yearly plan can be easily adjusted based on tools and diagrams in the plan appendix;
• Cooperation among members is in a harmonious way. Risk management network is broad and close throughout the countryside;
• Management of flood prevention from the commander to concrete teams has been shared gently and effectively;
• Telecommunication service for operation, coordination and reporting has been given special attention to be faster and better;
• Personnel and media for first aid and rescue have initially met the needs of the village.
• The four on-spot motto is totally clear now.

I talk about this to everyone honestly. Sometimes the fear of losing so much time on something, people may be narrow-minded or too watchful over something, they often lose their friendliness. Or sometimes, they still want to go on the familiar trail to prevent obstacles. I am so sorry that I myself have had such a moment.

Nguyen Vinh, Head of Disaster Management Board of Lap Thuan village, Dai Hong commune, Dai Loc district, Quang Nam province.