Hashoo Foundation launches Project

Chitral -- A coordination meeting of Hashoo Foundation with line Departments with regard to ‘A Safer Tomorrow—Disaster Preparedness in School’ project was held on 17th August 2011 with Rehmatullah Wazir, DCO Chitral, in the chair. The meeting was attended by heads of the line departments, Regional head of FOCUS and the Civil Defence staff.

Sultan Mehmood, Regional Programme Manager (RPM) Hashoo Foundation and Project Manager of ‘A Safer Tomorrow’, introduced and explained the objective of the project in detail. He apprised the forum that ‘A Safer Tomorrow—Disaster Preparedness in School’ is being funded by DIPECHO to be implemented by HOPE’87 and Hashoo Foundation in 20 schools of three Union Councils.

He also informed the meeting that Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between Elementary & Secondary Education Department, Khyber Pukhtukhwa and HOPE’87 and Hashoo Foundation, which is a milestone in involving the Education Department in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) initiatives in the schools of Chitral.

The objective of the project is to provide safety to school students, villagers and general community in times of natural disasters such as earthquake, flash flood and land sliding etc.

The activities of the project comprise a series of Integrated Community Based Risk Reduction (ICBRR) and Hazard Vulnerability, Capacity and Risk Assessment (HVCRA) trainings to be imparted to HF Volunteers, Education Department, Civil Defence Staff, teachers, students and community representatives.
80 teachers and 600 students from 20 schools will be identified and trained in Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster preparedness and they will ultimately carry the message to wider communities.

Three schools buildings, one in each Union Council, will be retrofitted and made safe places for communities to be used as shelters in case of occurrence of any disaster in future.

In his concluding remarks, Rehmatullah Wazir, DCO Chitral, thanked DIPECHO, HOPE’87 and Hashoo Foundation for initiating a worthwhile project for the safety of students and the general communities in Chtiral, which is the least developed district of the country and is potentially exposed to natural disasters. He also hoped the project would go a long way in raising awareness and providing safe places for the students and general community in times of natural disasters. -- CN report, 21 Aug 2011.

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