Project News

The Project on Participatory Rural Recovery (PPRR) has been supporting medium- to long-term recovery of 4 pilot local governments to enhance community resilience against disasters. This time we are going to introduce some activities for strengthening community people's disaster risk reduction (DRR) capacities.

March 2022, with generous support from a Japanese NGO named Shanti Volunteer Association (SVA), a training on "DRR Kamishibai" (Kamishibai = a large picture-story book, popular in Japan) was conducted for PPRR-supported community groups on such topics as: (1) why earthquakes happen; (2) what if an earthquake happens at school;

(3) how earthquakes happen; (4) landslides; and (5) lightening and fires. After the training, participants shared that these stories reminded them of their experiences at the 2015 earthquake which they had almost forgotten, and helped them realize once again the importance of disaster preparedness. It is intended that these DRR Kamishibai sessions will be expanded to the neighboring communities, thus further strengthening disaster preparedness in the area.

PPRR also conducted another series of community-level DRR training, first in the project sites in Gorkha. The main objectives of this training are not only to gain knowledge about disasters but also to understand how to act when a disaster occurs through hands-on, practical exercises. The training covered topics such as disaster drills, first aid for bone fracture and breeding, rescue by using bed sheet stretchers, making community evacuation maps, and community cooperation exercises. For many of these exercises, locally available materials were used, rather than bringing them from outside.

A total of 203 community people participated in these training programs, with women accounting for 90%. Through the training, they learned the importance of preparing themselves for various types of disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, floods, fire, etc. They also made a community hazard map and discussed what kinds of disaster risks exist in their own areas. These exercises helped them realize the need for ‘mutual support' mechanisms where community residents help each other in the face of a disaster.

The community people also discussed the importance of building good relationships among neighbors and raising awareness as a ‘community' in normal times. Hereafter, PPRR plans to conduct trainings on these topics targeting community leaders including members of the Ward Disaster Management Committees. We expect these DRR leaders to contribute to enhancing awareness, knowledge and skills related to disasters among community people and promoting overall disaster preparedness and resilience in the area.