by Michelle Joy L. Padayhag
Correspondent
FORTY students and out-of-school youths from the towns of Daanbantayan and Bantayan underwent a three-day youth camp on disaster risk reduction and management.
The activity was funded by the United Nation’s Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). It carried the theme “The Alternative Channel- Engaging the Youth in DRRM” and was organized by the Research Group for Alternatives to Development, Inc.(A2D Project).
“We hope that the youth will be represented in the local DRRM council. Majority of the population are children who are vulnerable during disasters,” Mark Vincent Israel, A2D project manager said.
The seminar started last Friday and ended yesterday afternoon.
Topics included climate change adaptation, youth mobilization for DRR education, social media and DRR, developing DRR campaign materials, parliamentary procedures and building youth constituency.
Child-centered programs
“We want the youth to be in the front line. We just don’t rely on the present generation but we also need to think of the future,” Maulid Warfa, field office chief for Unicef Tacloban said.
Warfa said youths from the towns of Bantayan and Daanbantayan were chosen since they were among the group’s beneficiaries in the aftermath of supertyphoon Yolanda, which devastated the Visayas in 2013.
The activity sought to integrate child-centered DRRM programs that highlight the child’s right to survival, protection, clean water, sanitation to food, health and education.