Community based disaster prevention in Indonesia

Indonesia, one of the poorest and at the same time most seismically active countries in the world was again hit by an earthquake at the beginning of July 2013 which killed numerous people off the coast of Sumatra. For that disaster safety training is offered by ASB to the inhabitants of the Mentawai islands.

The pilot project aims at strengthening the remote communities of the Mentawai islands to handle actual disasters through a variety of training and also through the implementation of a community based disaster risk management. For this purpose the comminity is provided training, first aid kits and search and rescue material (ropes and shovels) and radios.

People with disabilitites are particularly helpless in case of disaster and are often left behind. Thus ASB put a special focus on the inclusion of people with disabilities, since they are particularly helpless in case of disaster and are often left behind. For this, ASB uses training videos and picture cards specially made for this purpose.

The main focuses of the project are among others the planning of disaster prevention measures on the municipal level, the foundation of an institution for disaster risk management and the provision of operational staff for disasters.

During the project, 545 community members and more than 100 instructors for disaster prevention will be trained.

Further information is available on the ASB website.