Disasters affect the poorest communities and the most vulnerable people the hardest. Children bear the brunt; they may not know how to protect themselves or where to take shelter, they become separated from their parents and families which exposes them to even greater danger; they are disoriented, they do not understand what is happening and the experiences can be frightening.  Hurricaine Ketsana in 2009 reminded us all that the frequency of these kinds of events is increasing in Laos.  Not only are there more of them, but the intensity of these events is also increasing – all of which leave vulnerable communities, and children in particular, at risk.

Government capacity to respond to and manage such disasters remains limited, although has shown significant improvements in recent years. Save the Children will work with the government of Laos as well as with communities, schools and child clubs to build understanding and awareness of how disasters can be mitigated, and how communities and government can be better prepared to manage and respond to them when they happen. Targeted interventions at community level to build resilience, increase knowledge as well as focused capacity building initiatives to strengthen existing mechanisms and systems will be to backbone of our approach.

Goal: to increase resilience and reduce vulnerability of children, women, and marginalised groups to disasters by establishing disaster risk management (DRR) systems at the community, district, provincial, and national levels. To build capacity within Save the Children to respond to and manage future disaster.

How to achieve this? 

The approach in DRR will focus on three major areas of disaster risk management; Hazard Mitigation, Disaster Risk Education for Children and the development of an Emergency Management Information System.

“Hazard mitigation” will support the integration of disaster risk reduction into current efforts to address poverty and vulnerability. It will do this in two ways; firstly by improving and diversifying the livelihoods of vulnerable groups and mitigating the impacts of disasters on communities through protective measures, and secondly by integrating DRR concepts into government and community planning. Approaches include looking at ways of increasing family income through livelihood based activities, reducing the impacts of disasters by developing protective and preventative infrastructure and ensuring communities, including children, are better prepared to face possible emergencies in the future as a result of increased understanding awareness and planning. For this, community participation, including child participation and participation of vulnerable groups is crucial to build a culture of safety and disaster resilient communities. This approach views the community as first responders and active agents in readiness, response and recovery.

Integrating DRR concepts into government planning processes will include developing a Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction strategy which will assist in hazard mitigation plans. Subsequently, DRR will be integrated into all sectoral plans at province and district levels. This approach also looks to strengthen the existing government emergency response mechanisms at provincial, district and village level, through specific capacity building initiatives and trainings as well as practical on the job exercises. The focus is on the PDMCs, DDMCs and VDMCs; however significant investment is planned at the central level in support of the NDMO.

DRR will be integrated into teaching and learning at school. Teaching and learning materials on different types of disasters will be used as part of a behaviour change communication strategy and for enabling teachers to teach students effectively in DRR. DRR child clubs will be established as a space for children to learn and exchange information and ideas about preparedness for disasters and prevention from hazards, and they can play an active role in supporting and contributing to family and community resilience. “FLAMES” Sayaboury (youth group being supported by Save the Children) will provide support to the child clubs’ activities and train child club members in relevant life skills.

Emergency Management Information systems will be established at national, provincial and district levels. Database software will be introduced to government partner staff and mechanisms introduced to ensure that they are able to use and update data on a regular basis at all levels. Such a system will enable the GOL to manage and respond to disasters more effectively in the future.   

In all the above, we aim to work with key partners including:

• National Disaster Management Office/Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare
• Provincial Disaster Management Committee in Sayaboury Province
• District Disaster Management Committees in Sayaboury and Xieng Hone districts
• Village Disaster Management Committees
• Children at school and through Child clubs
•  FLAMES – Youth group
•  Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (Technical Partner)