Page 5 - Creating Resilience in Communities-Success Stories 24 Jan 22.indd

INTRODUCTION As part of its work on Child Centred Disaster Risk Reduction (CCDRR), Save the Children, with support of HKL, SC Germany, implemented a two-year project in 30 North MCD schools and 10 communities of North Delhi with the aim of building disaster preparedness at the individual, community and institutional levels. The project was rolled out in January 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 lockdown was invoked. Though disrupted, the project quickly realigned its functioning, moving from on-ground personal meetings to virtual meetings and awareness sessions with community-based groups such as task forces, children groups, mothers groups and child protection committees, who further spread their learnings to the community. Remarkably, although the mode of functioning had to change, the impact and the work being done in the community remained unaffected. As schools were closed, school-level activities were carried out involving children at the community level. The project was based on the Comprehensive School Safety framework. Home- School-Home approach, which was the key mantra of this intervention, focused on creating safety both at home and in schools, as well as during transit between the two spaces. This required the project team to build on the potential among children, communities and schools through participatory hazard, vulnerability, risk and capacity mapping, and by creating awareness and encouraging people, specifically adolescents, to plan various risk reduction initiatives. Groups were formed for children, mothers and youths and each Group was sensitized to prevent and deal with disasters, with a focus on making families, schools and communities resilient. The Children’s Group was trained on the dos and don’ts of safety measures in various situations, such as earthquakes, fire, disease, and man-made disasters, while the Mother’s Group was trained on how to repurpose common household items to reduce risks and how to prevent or respond to a disaster. A key aspect of the training was to create an understanding about child rights, and spread awareness about government schemes and how to access them. Task Forces, with a minimum of five members each, were created within the Groups and trained on early warning, first aid, search and rescue, shelter management, etc. These Task Forces were of crucial importance during the pandemic, as they were the bridge between Save the Children and the community, spreading awareness on what they had learnt through the trainings to other members of the community, and sharing the concerns and problems faced by the community with Save the Children. Once the lockdown ended, regular meetings with the Groups and Task Forces were resumed, following all necessary COVID-19 safety protocols. By its close, the project had reached out to 27,337 children and 26,222 adults in 10 community settlements, increasing their coping capacity for shocks induced by natural hazards; increasing their awareness on preventing everyday risks by safeguarding protection, health and nutrition, including WASH and other lifeline services; and helping them to understand that they could reduce the disasters that affected them, through awareness and positive actions in their daily lives. This document presents a small selection of case studies from the field that exemplify the changes that have been brought about through the intervention of Save the Children. Creating Resilience in Communities and Schools - Success Stories 3