DRR IN
Philippines
Due to its geographical location, the Philippines is exposed to
high incidents of hazards such as typhoons, floods, storm
surges, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions,
landslides and droughts. This, combined with poverty, leaves
various communities throughout the Philippines in highly
vulnerable situations. An annual average of 30 typhoons occur
in the north-western pacific ocean of which 20-22 occur in the
Philippines alone causing immense damage to life and property.
Five of those are usually devastating. Heavy rains accompanying
typhoons usually cause extensive floods. Excessive rainfall
during the typhoon season frequently triggers landslides. The
Philippines lie between two of the world’s major tectonic
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plates, the Pacific and Eurasian plates. Between 1589 and 1983,
there were 63 earthquakes in the Philippines, which caused
major destruction. The Philippines has 220 inactive volcanoes
and 22 active ones. Tsunamis have affected Philippines coastal
areas up to more than 4 meters above sea level. From 1603 to
1975, earthquakes generated 27 tsunamis which affected
coastal towns. These numerous events have had a devastating
effect on the Philippines. However, The Philippines continue to
have weak DRR capacities at the institutional level, poor
integration of DRR into the education sector and weak coping
capacities at the community level.
Save the Children’s Presence in the Philippines
Save the Children has been present in Philippines for over 29 years.
From its initial program in West Visayas which began in 1982, the
Philippines Country Office has expanded and now implements
child-rights based protection, education, health, food security,
livelihoods and emergency preparedness and response programs in
Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, the archipelago’s three major island
groupings. Save the Children has a special focus on helping children
made vulnerable by endemic poverty, natural disasters and armed
conflict. Programs are marked by the active involvement and
participation of families and communities, so that progress made for
children can be sustained. Save the Children in the Philippines
continues to build its expertise in preparedness, response and
Disaster Risk Reduction in order to provide quality programming
particularly focusing on disasters triggered by natural hazards.
Over the past 4 years Save the Children has implemented
approximately 10 programs with over 3 million USD funding for
DRR activities. Collectively the programs have reached 40,000
children directly and 75,000 children indirectly making us a
significant DRR agency in the Philippines. Save the Children’s DRR
programs aim to reduce vulnerabilities of children and communities
by building their resilience and coping mechanisms to natural
hazards through multi-sectoral partnerships.
Education and DRR
The Philippines showcases some very successful DRR education
projects. Save the Children has shown a strong commitment to
ensuring the participation and leadership of children in DRR having a
considerable impact on the education system in the Philippines.
Save the Children has incorporated disaster preparedness in schools
and produced teacher guides to DRR. We have focused on capacity
building of children on DRR, teaching them how to protect
themselves and raise awareness of their peers. We have trained the
Department of Education (teachers and non-teaching staff) on
child-led DRR and run workshops on developing DRR materials. A
teacher’s guide to DRR was developed that introduces the basic
terms, concepts, standards and mandates on disaster management. It
provides a guide for organizing the school disaster risk reduction
management groups and pupil emergency response team, conducting
a participatory campus and classroom risk assessment, and
formulating a child-centred school disaster management and
contingency plan. It also provides guidance on how to conduct a
children’s summer camp dealing with specific subjects on disaster risk
reduction and rights of the child in emergencies and disasters. Lesson
plans for public elementary school (‘My Little book on Disaster
Preparedness’ created for Grade 1-6.) on DRR have been used to
integrate DRR into school curriculum. ‘Children writing for children’
was a child-centred process in which children created story books
themed along population, health and environment (PHE). These
books were written and illustrated by young people themselves.
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Above: A single mother repairs her home after Typhoon Megi, Tumauini township,
Isabela district, Philippines.
Cover: School children conduct classes in a dilapidated school building in the town of
Delfin Albano in the province of Isabela northern Philippines.
Preparedness and Mitigation
The Bicol Assistance Program (BAP) established community based
and child-led disaster preparedness and response systems. This
included EWS, contingency planning workshops, and DRR training
in schools and DepEd. The disaster preparedness and response
Mindanao (DPRM) program delivered risk reduction intervention
to at risk communities – both conflict and natural disasters; and
solicited and awarded small sub-grants for local NGO project
initiatives (each USD 5,000). The proposals approved were around
trainings on disaster management/emergency response, mediating
and counselling of disabled persons, institutionalization of
community participation, first aid and basic life support during
emergency, construction/rehabilitation of emergency centres and
evacuation centres, installation of potable water systems,
psychosocial interventions for IDPs and children of war, assessment
study on food security, water and sanitation and health assessment
study and conduct of MERN network assembly.
In addition, support was provided to children and their families in
urban poor communities affected by tropical storm Ketsana.
Save the Children supported the basic education and psychosocial
needs of children and their families. Save the Children provided
learning supplies and school kits, implemented community-based
child friendly spaces, established community-based mechanisms for
disaster risk reduction including organising emergency response
teams, and the formulation of community-based emergency
preparedness plans.