Disaster Risk Reduction - Philippines

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.