Disaster education can be fun, JICA volunteers teach Bicol youth

MANILA, Philippines - At Oro Site High School, a few kilometers from the foot of Mayon, high school students huddle together to shade colors on a map they’ve made. With the colors they are marking hazards in their town: pink for dangerous places, orange for safe places, and green for useful facilities.

They only recently learned how to prepare a map from walking around their town through a concept called ‘town watching.’

As they deal with Mayon Volcano’s unrest and frequent typhoon visits in the province, students in Bicol are learning to cope with disasters in a fun, interesting way.

Twenty-seven-year old Japanese volunteer Yuji Ueno taught students the concept of town watching, a popular activity on disaster education in Japan. Children up to the elderly can participate in the activity, walk around their town, and pay attention to evacuation places, and useful facilities where they can go in times of disaster.

“I try to make the students understand in a fun way the different elements of their town connected to disasters,” said Ueno, who was formerly a part of a disaster management field survey in Mt. Merapi in Indonesia, and now works with the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office.

Ueno would discuss before-disaster-scenario topics like “What would you do if you can go back one day before a disaster” to teach students on disaster risk reduction management, or DRRM.

“Albay is very progressive. It’s very well-organized when it comes to information dissemination and preemptive evacuation. But still, mutual cooperation among citizens should be encouraged,” he said.

Ueno is also bringing to Bicol the Iza! Kaeru Caravan, a famous Japanese fun-filled learning workshop characterized by games on DRRM developed by PlusArts, a Japanese non-profit group, and the Japan Foundation.

“We are looking for a venue for the caravan. Our plan is to hold it along with the Earth Manual Project Exhibition, a popular disaster preparedness exhibition in Kobe, Japan which we want to hold in the Philippines,” he added. The exhibition, originally developed by the Design and Creative Center Kobe, was recently held at the Ayala Museum, and is being mulled for staging in different parts of the country.

The exhibit shows creative approaches to disaster preparedness and recovery that will feature Filipino artists, Japanese and Asian design architects, and even the academe.

Dispatched as volunteers by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)’s Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers Program, Ueno is joined by 26-year old Yuta Makabe in assisting Bicol in the promotion of disaster education.

A geo-science major from Nihon University, Makabe teaches DRRM to high school students in Legazpi City. When Mayon volcano registered activity, Makabe continued DRRM lessons to students in Tiwi, Albay. Like Ueno, Makabe is making disaster education fun and more visual for the Bicolanos.

“I showed science experiments on volcanic eruptions using flour, soda, and mint candy. I also shared with them Japan’s experience with the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami through visual aids since they live near coastal areas,” he shared.  

“I noticed that cities and municipalities in Albay cooperate with each other. That’s very important so Bicol could maintain zero casualty,” he added.

With common experiences in disasters, Japan and the Philippines have a lot to learn from each other. Realizing that Bicol, where Mayon’s stunning view sits, is sadly one of the Philippines’ disaster-prone provinces, Ueno and Makabe are tirelessly sharing lessons on disaster management with Bicol’s young people in more fun and unique ways.