CE faculty supports 1M Safe Schools and Hospitals Campaign

Special Session Sepakers on Safe Schools and Hospitals - 1 Dec 2010

Photo by Jerry Velasquez

Dr. Andres Oreta and Dr. Renan Tanhieco presented papers in the Special Session on Safe Schools and Hospitals organized by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) during the 3rd Asia Conference on Earthquake Engineering (ACEE) which was held on Dec. 1-3, 2010 at Bangkok, Thailand.

Dr. Oreta presented the paper on "One Million Safe Schools and Hospitals Campaign: Promoting Awareness, Preparedness and Risk Reduction", while Dr. Tanhueco will talked about "Assessment and Mitigation Planning for Safe Schools and Hospitals.". Dr. Oreta and Dr. Tanhueco prepared documents for the campaign. The documents are (a) Advocacy Guide, (b) Guidance Notes: School Emergency and Disaster Preparedness, (c) Guidance Notes: Emergency and Disaster Preparedness for Health Facilities, and (d) Guidance Notes: Assessment and Mitigation Planning for Risk Reduction. These documents can be downloaded at the campaign website information materials page. The campaign website was also designed by a team of DLSU faculty and students.

The One Million Safe Schools and Hospitals Campaign was spearheaded by the UNISDR and partners (e.g. UNICEF, WHO, WB, UNESCO etc). The campaign calls individuals (students, faculty, administrators) or organizations to make a commitment by pledging online to do specific actions on any of the three components that could make schools and hospitals safer before a disaster: public awareness, emergency and disaster preparedness, and disaster risk reduction. The campaign aims to raise public awareness and create a demand for safe schools, hospitals and health facilities that will:

• Protect the lives of school children and the sick by ensuring that proper safety measures are installed;
• Assure the continuity of the functions of hospitals and health facilities in the treatment of the sick, and provide safe places in schools at all times;
• Improve the risk reduction capacity of all stakeholders of schools, hospitals and health facilities.

Visit the campaign website and pledge now.