Awareness workshop as an effective tool and approach for education in disaster risk reduction: A case study from Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The core of empowering a community to become more resilient is rooted in disaster risk reduction and its education imparted using various educational tools, mainly through awareness and training programs. Conveying the available knowledge resources to the community by transforming it in a way that matches the local context in order to build a "culture of safety" is the hardest matter to be dealt with. It becomes the responsibility of the disaster management experts, concerned authorities, and researchers to focus more on disaster education by making the resources available to vulnerable communities. Taking this into account, this paper discusses an educational tool prepared for conducting awareness workshops. The paper particularly focuses on the educational tool application in the study area to illustrate its use in "real world" circumstances and to test its efficiency and limitations. It was found that such workshops can bring about a positive change in the level of understanding about disasters and the significance of disaster risk reduction measures. At the same time, it emphasizes that awareness generation is not a short-term affair. The sustainability of educational projects and programs is essential in inculcating disaster risk reduction as a part of people's life and culture.