Mapping risks to support Disaster READY schools in Madang, PNG

Above: Mr Freddy Nasukar, Head Teacher at Sama SDA Primary School, with a community leader working on the school and community risk map. Photo: Lapawe Dehaan

In Madang, Papua New Guinea, a child-focused disaster risk reduction project is supporting 10 schools and their surrounding communities to create hazard risk maps.

The work, led by Australian Humanitarian Partnership NGO World Vision as part of the Disaster READY program, has communities thinking ahead about the risks and threats they could face in a disaster, and how they can better prepare.

The process of creating the maps has inclusion at its heart, with the project team mobilising people living with disability, women, elderly people, as well as school communities, to participate in the process. The Madang Provincial Disaster Management Office was a key collaborator, along with local disabled people’s organisation Creative Self Help. Through the inclusion of diverse groups, especially those most vulnerable to the impacts of disasters, the maps capture the risks perceived by all members of the community, as well as safe and unsafe places for evacuation, and accessible routes.

Above: An example of a disaster risk map, from Ambarina community. Supplied: World Vision

The project team took four months to conduct a comprehensive hazard assessment for each school and community, resulting in the production of 20 different hazard risk maps. Comments were then sought from the community and participants before the maps were finalised. The final versions have been printed and distributed, and will also be erected on billboards at each school and community later this month.

“Producing the hazard risks map was an eye opener for us. We lived with these hazards in our community but we really didn’t know how to prepare for, cope with or respond to disaster events produced by these known hazards,” said Mr Freddy Nasukar, a Head Teacher at Sama SDA Primary School, one of the mapping sites.  

“Many times we lost lives or properties due to our lack of knowledge on how to prepare for the disaster events produced by these local hazards. Now the members of our community are aware of the location of different hazards and risks these hazards pose for the school and communities and the safe routes to safe evacuation sites,” he said.