Suggestion from a Child

At last the workshops finished for 69 schools. That was the report from the JEN staff who has been organizing the disaster risk reduction workshops for the school children and teachers in the disaster affected areas of Padang Pariaman.

Organizing of 17 workshops of full day continuously in 1 month, handling school children in the 17 different venues is not an easy task. And we know that some children are very naughty and difficult to handle, but sometimes that naughty behavior and gesture discover a new thing to study and it also refresh the serious atmosphere in the workshop hall and people cannot stop to laugh of loud. JEN observed this kind of occasions many times during the workshops. Sometimes those innocent children make us think about something that we have never thought of.

There is one part of the workshop where each group creates a map of the school and its evacuation route. After they complete the mapping, one of the teachers or students explains the map to all the participants.

Once a teacher was explaining about the Drop Cover and Hold method, a student raised a question. 

“If we hide under the table and the table is not strong enough, the debris from the roof will destroy the table, so we will all die”.

No one had answer for that question or query of the child. But the teacher told the child that they will ask the department to make the tables stronger.

Education department has the solution of this issue. They should make the furniture strong enough and they should keep in mind that the area is vulnerable and it is possible that disaster can come anytime in the future. JEN included this point as a suggestion to education department in the report.