Transcript
HEATHER HAYDEN: Well this is a five year programme, the focus of it is preparing families, children, communities or both, preparing for disasters being able to be more resilient during disasters and then able to rebuild afterwards.
DON WISEMAN: In terms of this preparation what will you be doing?
HH: Well there's a mix of real practical things like evacuation centres making sure we've got pre-positioned supplies in place, school materials for example, water tanks - that was one of the major issues in Cyclone Winston was water tanks were blown away, so a lot of it is quite practical things. Other areas we're working on are around the government's policy, around making sure children are at the forefront and protected during emergencies. A lot of work in the community around rebuilding evacuation centres, making sure they're full of emergency supplies and making sure that communities have identified where the issues are and are ready to respond and rebuild again very quickly after a disaster. Finally, a real focus around involving children, so children's clubs and other activities. We've found wherever we've worked around the world that when children are prepared and are ready to respond in emergencies they make a huge difference to both their families and their communities.
DW: There's been a lot of work since the cyclone in Fiji to try and isolate just what is needed to prepare the country for the inevitable next big event like this. What's been your involvement with Fiji authorities over all of this?
HH: We've been very involved around the education area. One of the key things that Save the Children is very focused on is that children don't miss out on their schooling following an emergency. We've found again in other parts of the world that we're working in, that if children miss out on their schooling often they don't go back to it. So being prepared, having educational supplies ready to go straight away, temporary classrooms set up immediately after a disaster, they're all the things that you can do to ensure that children don't miss any days of school and are able to continue on with their education. That's the key area that we've been working in since Winston and we'll continue to work on.
DW: And that's what the Fiji government looked for?
HH: That's what the Fiji government asked us to respond to, yes. The other area that the Fiji government asked us to respond to was around child friendly spaces, something again, that we do internationally and we're about to start in New Zealand actually, when there's emergencies in New Zealand, but that's providing safe places with trained people to enable the children to be together in an emergency so the parents can focus on the things they need to do to rebuild their lives and their communities.
