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UNESCO to launch global disaster reduction education campaign
A global campaign for disaster reduction education will be launched on 15 June at UNESCO (6 p.m., Room II), by the Inter-Agency Secretariat of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), UNESCO and the French National Committee for the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The campaign, entitled Disaster Risk Reduction Begins at School", has two main objectives: promote disaster reduction education in school curricula, and improve school safety by encouraging the application of construction standards that can withstand any kind of natural hazard.
The effectiveness of risk reduction was demonstrated during the December 2004 tsunami: a young girl, Tilly Smith (who will tell her story at the launch) saved a hundred lives thanks to what she learned in a geography lesson about tsunamis before going on holiday to Thailand with her parents. As for young Anto of the island of Simeuleu, he was spared by his knowledge of past tsunamis, a memory his community has carefully preserved. How vulnerable children are in natural disasters was shown in the earthquake that struck Pakistan in October 2005 when more than 16,000 children perished at school and, more recently, in the earthquake on the island of Java.
Source: UNESCO.
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