September 2020 - The UNITAR Hiroshima Office’s Women’s Leadership in Tsunami-based Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Training Programme 5th annual cycle, the 2020 programme, is currently open for applications from Pacific SIDS at https://apply.unitar.org/. Read on to learn about the experience of one Tongan alumni.
Tropical cyclones, tsunami, drought, and flash floods are just some of the natural disasters that menace the Pacific Island nation of Tonga.
“It’s an all-year cycle,” says Lu’isa Uai Taunga, an officer for Tonga’s National Emergency Management Office, which is part of the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change, and Communications.
In fall 2017, Lu’isa participated in the 2017 Cycle of the UNITAR Hiroshima Office’s Women’s Leadership in Tsunami-based Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Training Programme, which is supported by the Government and People of Japan.
The programme, which targets female representatives from the governments and civil society of Pacific and Indian Ocean nations, offers training on DRR at institutional, community, and government levels. With sessions taking place in the Japanese cities of Sendai, Tokyo, Wakayama, and Kobe, participants are given in-depth knowledge of DRR best practices developed by communities with direct experience of earthquakes, and tsunami.
The latter, in particular, made a deep impression on Lu’isa.
“The picture of destruction, sorrow, and death that I saw during the site visits is still quite vivid in my mind,” she says. “It was one of the major factors that has influenced my work. I want to do as much as I can for the people on the island where I am posted, in order to alleviate the impact and effects of natural disasters.”
Back on the Tongan island of Ha'apai, Lu’isa set to work. In addition to securing funding to build an evacuation center and install water tanks, she conducted various activities to raise awareness about DRR. These included visiting schools to teach students to prepare “72-hour” disaster preparedness bags and organizing poetry and poster competitions.
Lu’isa also held workshops to train various community members, such as town and district officers, emergency operation center staff, and students.
“I found during my school visits that the DRR messages, such as those about evacuation, that we shared at workshops with town officers and other adults were not trickling down to the children,” she says. “So this year I changed my approach. This is something I learned from UNITAR during visits to schools that used a bottom-up approach. Children are taught and the message will trigger upwards.”