Teach emergency preparedness

AS a victim of Sausi (Ramu) disaster in 2014, a day before Manam volcano disaster, we didn’t know what to do.
But luckily, most of our teachers’ children, from pregnant mothers to six-year-old children survived the flood.
We were separated during the dark night under heavy rain, lightning and thunder.
We could only see shadows and tress standing tall and passing us.
Some of us found safe spots, some hung onto tree branches while some of us stayed in the water till day break then swam ashore.
We did all of that in the name of survival; to continue living the next day and to carry on our duties as educators.
We didn’t have much knowledge of emergency and the equipment to prepare for such disasters.
Now that the International Organisation for Migration is going ahead in running such programmes, I would like to ask the Education Department and other stakeholders to conduct emergency preparedness training in schools.
Schools need to include it in their curriculum to educate the children and drill them every week or month depending on their programme because we never know when a disaster would strike.
Climate change is one big factor and schools need to be prepared for it.
I am sorry for teachers and students who have lost their lives in disasters.
To those living and that have risked their lives in such situation, I salute you.
I wish our department gives us some form of recognition.
But what we can do is use our experiences as a model to educate others during emergency preparedness training.
Most teachers are serving in very remote and dangerous places under cliffs, mountains and in the middle of seas and rivers.
The emergency preparedness education, with all the required basic equipment, should be provided in all schools.
We do not only need administrative knowledge to build schools.
We need practical survival skills.

Francis Saliau