Ayberk Yurtsever, Turkish Red Crescent
What event might bring together teachers, community leaders and local religious leaders? A meal perhaps? Or a wedding reception? Both might – but the Turkish Red Crescent is now regularly bringing such people together for an altogether more important reason: to help save lives by raising awareness of disaster preparedness within their communities.
“Preparing to pull people from the ruins is one thing but we should be looking at how we protect them from the falling walls in the first place,” says Dr. Ahmet Mete Isikara, the previous director of the Bogaziçi University Kandilli Observatory, Earthquake Research Center. “Earthquakes don’t kill, but buildings do.”
As Dr Isikara speaks, his audience of community leaders listens and takes notes. They know what he says is important in helping them to reduce the impact of disasters. And they know he is an expert in his field. A volunteer with the Turkish Red Crescent since 2005, Dr Isikara is known in Turkey as the ‘earthquake grandpa’.
Dr Isikara’s presentation is one of a series of meetings organized this year by the Turkish Red Crescent aimed at ‘reducing the impact of catastrophes and sensitizing the community’. The participants are teachers, community leaders and local religious leaders from Istanbul, which was chosen as the pilot zone. All have a shared goal: to minimize the harmful effects of a likely catastrophe and to join forces in preparing for the disaster.
The aim of the project is to build the capacity of Turkish Red Crescent branches in Istanbul to raise community awareness of disaster preparedness and risk reduction. This will be done through community leaders and will therefore build a community-based culture of risk reduction.
As a first step, formal agreements were signed with partners such as the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Presidency of Religious Affairs. This was followed by a training of trainers in Turkish Red Crescent branches in Istanbul. Some 87 staff and volunteers in 26 Red Crescent branches received instructor training.
These branches have now begun to cascade their knowledge through the pyramid layers of society by training 10 community leaders, 10 religious leaders and 20 teachers from their own neighbourhoods. In total, 282 teachers, 190 religious leaders and 108 community leaders have been trained through this project alone.
The training covers general information about the Red Crescent, disaster preparedness, disaster intervention, risk reduction, how to protect oneself during an earthquake, the role of community leaders in disaster situations, community participation, psychological first aid, and how to make effective presentations. Prof. Isikara emphasized the importance of disaster preparedness to community leaders. “We have to learn to live with earthquakes,” he said. “If you don’t respect Nature, it won’t respect you either.”
The main expectation from the project is that community leaders will be able to share what they have learned with other groups in the community. In this way, awareness of disasters and disaster preparedness will be raised at all levels. Community leaders are also expected to set up ‘safe living corners’ in schools, mosques and community leader offices, organize disaster preparedness activities in local streets and schools, volunteer time to support the Red Crescent in normal times and in emergencies, and keep in touch with the nearest Red Crescent branch.
At every presentation, Dr Isikara tells his audience that ‘knowledge saves lives’. In partnership with the Turkish Red Crescent, therefore, community leaders have been given one of the greatest responsibilities of all – by helping to reduce the impact of disasters, they are indeed saving lives.