Activities for disaster prevention in the world

UNCRD (United Nations Center for Regional Development) was founded in Nagoya, Japan in 1971. UNCRD tackles problems that are caused by artificial environments in development in developing countries. We have to consider development from three views: economy, environment, safety for humans.

Due to the large population in Asian countries such as India, China, the Philippines and Indonesia, the damage caused by disasters in Asia is the most severe in the word. So people living in Asia have to build communities resistant to disasters. For example, in Nepal, schools are not built strongly and collapse easily when an earthquake occurs. It is also said that students in Nepal study at 400 times as dangerous places as in Japan.

To improve these dangerous situations, the disaster prevention project in schools has started. In this project, many lessons from the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake are adopted. The themes in this project are 1) confidence for disaster prevention by self-help, 2) helping each other and 3) disaster prevention education. It is important to understand the culture and the people in this project well. This project is being implemented in 5 cities of 4 countries now. In Nepal, some towns are making progress in disaster prevention education through the help of teachers, carpenters, bricklayers, engineers and government officers. The interaction between schools in Nepal and Maiko HS has begun by exchanging culture boxes. Many disaster prevention activities are underway in the world.

-Student's impressions-

When I began the interaction activity with schools in Nepal, I at first thought high school students were not able to do anything special. However now I think I just avoided trying a new challenge and was afraid of it. To make our society safer, we have to change our attitudes and have more courage. It is important for us, the young, to study more about disaster prevention and take more initiative for it.

I have some knowledge about disaster prevention because I experienced the disaster and am now involved in the interaction activity with Nepal, on the other hand, there are many people who don't have such knowledge. It is the same in Japan. I think it is important for all of us to think of the earthquake and live safely.