Schools are powerful symbols of progress and
development. Schools represent our children – the nation’s hope for the future
– and their education. In recent disasters in the Philippines, many school
buildings were damaged due to various natural hazards like earthquakes, floods,
landslides and typhoon causing a number of casualties. Creating “safe school”
involves an integrated strategy among the stakeholders. Aside from assuring
that school buildings are safe and sound during a hazardous event, a safe school
must promote a culture of safety where the students and teachers are aware of
the risks to hazards and prepared to respond during emergencies and emergencies.
Hence, this presentation highlights the SOS Tips Infographics, one of the
components of the project on “Strengthening ORDER in Schools (S.O.S).” The S.O.S.
Project is part of the “Philippines Resilience of Schools to Multi
Hazard” or PRISMH project funded by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED)
and has a component on the development of materials for Organizational
Resilience in Disasters & Emergency Response (ORDER).
The SOS Tips Infographics aims to increase
awareness of school children and teachers on what to do before, during, and
after a hazardous event such as earthquakes, strong winds, typhoons and floods.
The
S.O.S. Tips infographics are of three modules: (a) S.O.S. Tips on Emergency
Evacuation, (b) S.O.S. Tips on Wind, Typhoon and Flood and (c) S.O.S. Tips on
Earthquakes.
The
S.O.S. Tips on Emergency Evacuation emphasize that an evacuation site and evacuation
route are critical components in a school emergency and disaster preparedness plan.
Hence, this module provides simple tips on identifying the evacuation assembly
area and/or sites and evacuation routes based on hazards and simple rules
during evacuation that students must follow.
The S.O.S. Tips on Wind, Typhoon and Flood provide
tips on what do during and after the hazardous event whether inside the
classroom or outside the school building.
The
S.O.S. Tips on Earthquakes also provide guidance to students on what to during
an earthquake if indoors or outdoors and what to do after the earthquake ground
shaking.
The
S.O.S. Tips Infographics are appropriate not only to school children in grade
school or high school but even to college students since the messages are
general. The infographics design is simple with meaningful cartoon images and
catchy and readable texts. The infographics can be adopted in the school
curriculum as a teaching and learning material in the subject on Disaster
Readiness and Risk Reduction.
The infographics are readily available in the internet. Just click the highlighted S.O.S. Tips Infographics links.
