Children Deprived Of Safe Education Rights Because Of Disasters

Disasters deprive children of their right to a continu­ous, quality and basic education in a safe environ­ment.

These were the sentiments raised by Save the Children Fiji chief executive officer, Shairana Ali, while opening the School Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Build­ing Training of Trainers for education advisors in Suva yesterday.

“We must ensure children’s right to education is protect­ed as a priority,” she said.

“We have witnessed the highest average annual disaster loss over the years and this is why Save the Children is strongly committed to ensuring safe schools for children and education personnel in and around the school.”

The training aims to enhance the knowledge, capacities and resilience of schools in the Central Division, enabling them to design and develop activities for their school safe­ty and Disaster Risk Reduction strategies.

She said building resilience to disasters and climate change has been recognized as a key area for strengthen­ing development goals across the region including Fiji.

“The CDRR (Child-Centred Disaster Risk Reduction) project team will be conducting trainings for education cluster leads schools in the Suva, Lautoka/Yasawa and Macuata education districts in coming weeks to roll out the Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA) standard SDRR training manual,” she said.

“The manual is an extension of the MEHA Policy and serves as a practical “how-to” guide to implementing the policy primarily focusing on school disaster management in a systematic, contextualised and sustainable way.”

The project is being funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and supported by Save the Children New Zealand.

Edited by Rayape Karavaki

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