Thursday, October 31, 2013

Earthquake Awareness Campaign 2013--For a Safer and Conscious Next Generation








Earthquake destroys in seconds. Bangladesh, a proximate place to the red zone, indicated by the geologists and earthquake specialists, are very much in potential earthquake danger. Dhaka, specially the Old Town part of it, is much more vulnerable than any other areas of the country in case of future earthquake occurrence as most of the structures of this territory are old and archaic.  Many  people of the country are ready to talk about its possibility in our capital city, Dhaka, while a rare exception among them are prepared to show the ways in which the loss or damaged can be minimized if this devastating natural calamity take place anytime in near future. With volunteering spirit and determination in their heart and mind, members of House of Volunteers Bangladesh (HoV BD) have shown this bright example recently in their Earthquake Awareness Campaign (EAC) which was kicked off on 7th September, 2013 at 2 schools of Old Dhaka which is followed by other four sessions. Government has been conducting campaigns regarding earthquake awareness for a few years. But, HoV is the first youth-led organization to run campaign concerning it which was made possible because of the outstanding assistance provided by EMK Center. City FM 96 is the FM media partner of this unique campaign.
HOV started taking necessary steps to materialize the project since February 2013. Among several important undertakings, mentionable are University selection & workshop arrangement, Content & resource development, School survey & selection based on earthquake vulnerability.

In first phase, HoV arranged a networking event for its volunteers at BUET on March 25, 2013. General discussion on upcoming activities, formation of social media groups and delegation of work responsibilities amongst members were highlights of the proceedings. A total of 25 members were present. April 7, 2013 saw the project kick off formally at a group meeting with core members in attendance at EMK center.
In second phase, university level workshops for creating volunteer Presenter were arranged.
A total of five universities have been selected for training volunteers to present at campaign events. These are Ahsanullah University of Science & Technology, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, BRAC University, Dhaka University and East West University.
Three workshops were conducted for Dhaka University and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology during July and August, 2013. The three major components of these workshops were sharing basic content with participants, finding improvement potentials in group work, discussing effective way of communication and interaction.
The first workshop was held at EMK center on 6 July, 2013 for BUET students with 25 participants, facilitated by senior HoV BUET members with previous experience from last year’s pilot project. The second workshop, held at RC Majumder Auditorium, for students of Dhaka University on 7th July, 2013, was followed by an orientation of new members. The third workshop was a 2.5 hour session held for 11 Dhaka University students on 24 August, 2013, at EMK Center.
The third phase was content development phase

The initial content for the project was developed by HOV BUET members using MS PowerPoint. It kicked off via a brainstorming session held on April 20, 2013 with 20 members in attendance. A series of follow up meetings were later held to continue the work.


The Fourth Phase was Resource development Phase

According to the project plan one laptop was purchased which was used as important project resource during content development and volunteer presenter workshop. Considering important means of project communication one mobile set with sim card was also purchased. It’s add on for the project and also planned to buy another two mobile sets with sim card for making the communication easy and cost effective during project. Purchasing of multimedia projector is under process and has been planned to buy at the beginning of second phase of the project.

In phase five Schools for implementing the campaigns were selected

To select the target schools, HOV had conducted a survey engaging its Dhaka University chapters on 19 schools from Old Dhaka by June 2013.

Among those 19 schools, 10 schools were selected for the purpose of program activation. The selection criteria were infrastructural damage of the school, number of students of the school , Location of the schools; preference given on densely populated area, earthquake vulnerability of the proximate locality, due support of the school authority.

In Sixth phase, the Project was activated in with all its vigor and vitality

The most important part of the project is executing earthquake awareness campaign at selected schools. The successful activation of the program was organized on 7 September, 2013 by conducting campaign at two schools in parallel session. They are Bhasha Prodeep High School and Cotton Mill Adarsha High school, Postogola, Dhaka.

Later on, another 4 schools namely UCEP School, Faridabad High school, Nabokumar Institute and Udayan Higher Secondary School are also covered under the schedules of the campaign.  So far, total 40 volunteer presenters and organizers from Dhaka University Chapter conducted the day long program. Total 4500 students and 40 teachers actively attended those sessions.

The enthusiasm and support from both were mentionable. The only challenge was having expected number of participants due to suddenly scheduled exam of several classes in both schools. HOV Bangladesh officials were also present on that important event and holding very interactive discussion among young HOV members and school authority. Documentation of the program activation has been done by listing participants (students, volunteers), taking photograph and capturing video which will be used later in project communication along with the grand launch of a website solely based on the EAC.

While executing each of the events, HOV had to delay or sometimes changed its event’s schedule due to strike, detention and other political indiscipline and violence in Bangladesh during that period along with the problem of being rainy weather. Besides, most of the university conducted semester final examination. Moreover, the Holy Ramadan and other vacations made it delay in perform

HoV doesn’t believe in one day show; rather their EAC is a continuous process to protect the next generation from the virulent natural calamity which could show its ugly face in near future. The first 3 sessions covered around 2500 students from 5 schools. The interest and inquisitiveness shown by the participating students have created great enthusiasm among the volunteers and organizers. They are now eagerly looking forward to the future sessions of the campaign.
Quick Facts of the Campaign

Trained 62 volunteer presenters in 3 workshops
● Conducted survey in 19 schools
● Selected 10 schools for campaign
● Completed off School Campaign at 6 schools
● Covered 4500 students along with 40 teachers