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18 July 2002 By Simon Eccleshall in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam The annual flood season for the Mekong river delta is rapidly approaching, but this year school children are better prepared than ever. Flood waters inundate large areas of the Mekong (Cuu Long) river delta in southern Viet Nam every year between the end of July and early November. In 2000 and 2001 the floods were particularly severe resulting in the deaths of more than 900 people – over 650 of them were children. In preparation for the coming flood season, the Viet Nam Red Cross has been training a vast network of its staff, volunteers, schoolteachers and children in disaster preparedness. With support from the Australian government over 2,250 teachers and 100,000 children have been trained across the 12 Mekong river delta provinces. The culmination of the training has been a competition between schools to see how well the children have retained their knowledge on key disaster preparedness issues and actions. Students from grades four and five (aged 10 and 11 years) were quizzed on the causes of disasters, what to do before the floods, during the floods and after the floods to protect life and property. The quizzes were held in local competitive rounds with the top four or five schools progressing to the provincial final. The students were very enthusiastic and all demonstrated an excellent knowledge of practical disaster preparedness measures they and their family should adopt during floods. Many of the girls and boys had learnt the key messages by heart and were able to quote lengthy answers to the audience. There were smiles from the winners and plenty of tears for the teams that failed to make it through to the finals. It was the girls who really shined in the quizzes and who took home many of the prizes donated by the department of education and local Viet Nam Red Cross members, including a bicycle, school books, pens and sweets. Successful teams also won money for their schools. Department of education officials expressed gratitude to the Viet Nam Red Cross, supported by the International Federation, for organizing the event and expressed hope that the disaster preparedness training could be incorporated into the formal education curriculum and that the quizzes could be repeated every year. Local television stations have noted the enthusiasm and interest in the disaster preparedness quizzes, known around the country as the DP quiz. Plans are now underway to produce and televise a live quiz in Can Tho province on 6 July. The quiz will be televised throughout the Mekong river delta and will help to disseminate disaster preparedness messages to a broader audience. As part of the Viet Nam Red Cross national disaster preparedness program, the International Federation and the Viet Nam Red Cross are finalizing the production of a training video around the theme living with the floods which it hopes to air as a series of television commercials in July and August just prior to the onset of the flood season. The International Federation and the Viet Nam Red Cross are also currently conducting a grassroots study into the lessons learnt from the last two years of serious flooding and will present their findings to a broad audience of government, non governmental and donor representatives at a seminar to be held in Ho Chi Minh City in late July. Related Links: More on: Viet Nam Annual Appeal - Viet Nam 19 June 2002 - Mangrove planting saves lives and money in Viet Nam |
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