Education Safe from Disasters

Every child has a right to a quality education, yet many children are unable to realize this right due to the impact of natural disasters. The Asia-Pacific is the most disaster prone in the world, and disasters have accounted for the loss of half a million lifes in this region during the last ten years. Unfortunately, children bear the brunt of these emergencies. In the coming decades, 200 million children will have their lives severely affected by disasters, and it will be the deprived and marginalized children who are the most vulnerable. 

Educational inequities are intensified because of schools being damaged or destroyed (due to poor site selection, design, or construction), schools being used as evacuation centres, and because disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies are not being adequately resourced or prioritized through different levels of governments and to the community level. As a result, disasters cause significant and prolonged disruption to children’s education. 

 

Given this situation, we need to make education safe from disaster in order to achieve much needed progress in the field of global education.

Education Safe from Disasters (ESD) is an Asia-Pacific regional initiative from Save the Children, aimed at strengthening risk reduction, emergency response and resilience building to ensure that all children learn from a quality basic education at all times, including emergencies. It aims to defend two fundamental child rights: the right to safety and survival and the right to education.

 

Our 0/0 goal: 

Zero children are killed or injured at school during a disaster, 

Zero days of education are lost due to disaster.

 

ESD is linking emergency preparedness and disaster relief actions in order to have a lasting effect.

All projects consist of three pillars:

Creating Safe Learning Facilities

Establishing a School Disaster Management

Implementing Risk Reduction and Resilience Education