Girl Leading the Charge to Disaster-proof her Community

by Mai Zamora, World Vision Philippines, Communications

Can you prevent a natural disaster?

Fourteen-year-old Lyka will quickly tell you no.

But, in the next breath, this Filipino ninth grader will tell you that the damage caused by a natural disaster can decrease.

HAILING FROM AN AREA FREQUENTLY FLOODED

Lyka is one of the child champions on Child-focused Disaster Risk Reduction and Local Capacities for Peace. She lives in Agusan del Sur, in the Southern part of the Philippines, a disaster-prone province.

“We have been experiencing flooding almost every month especially after Typhoon Bopha hit our province where a lot of houses were destroyed and trees were uprooted.

“For us to be prepared in the next disasters, World Vision trained us on how to be ready and how to mitigate disasters, together with the local officials in our community.”

LEADING OTHER CHILDREN

Lyka is one of World Vision sponsored children who have been exposed to child participation activities in their community. Together with other children, she have been attending activities for children to learn their rights and responsibilities on their respective communities.

“With the trainings I attended with World Vision, I learned and realized how we can help our community.  Before, I thought that only adults can plan and think of what’s good for us.

“I was so happy with the training because we, the children, and the local officials in our village have been helping each other on how to be disaster ready. I am so happy that they are listening to us [children] and they are taking our suggestions.”

PREVENTING DISASTER DAMAGE

“In one of the sessions of the local officials, we were invited to give suggestions on how we can protect and mitigate disaster. We shared our ideas like tree planting activities and identified places that can be risky for the community. A few months after, we did a tree planting with them,” Lyka says.

Since then, Lyka has been speaking about community disaster preparedness to children of different faiths from other provinces.

“And for other to learn and improve the relationship to other ethnic groups, I share my learning to my classmates and other child leaders. Sometimes, my teachers would even ask me to share what I learned from the training, “ Lyka says.

“Every time I have the chance to speak to others, I always encourage my fellow children to help each other and share what they learned. I know  if I will do this often we will be having a peaceful and disaster-ready community,” she concludes.