Education Clusters Key in Disaster Mitigation
![Education players crucial in mitigating disasters](/media/k2/items/cache/59aab714d11ffbe38da056412f4c9e6b_L.jpg)
Humanitarian actors have been urged to safeguard rights of children during disasters and devise ways of protecting them before, during and after disasters.
This has been said today, Thursday, by Beyond our Hearts Foundation Project Officer, Mavis Sambakunsi, who also said that children in camps face numerous abuses such as sexual harassment and child labour.
She further said that school management together with Area Civil Protection Committees (ACPC) should be talking to each other in responding to disasters.
She noted that "as disaster committees, they must be in the forefront in devising new ways of detecting a possible disaster occurrence and never forget to use traditional means of forecasting a disaster."
Ector Taibu, a data clerk in the office of the District Education Manager commended Save the Children-Italy for reminding them of their role through the Localisation Pilot Project which Beyond our Hearts Foundation is jointly conducting with the Neno District Council.
"As data clerks, we need to be vigilant in times of disasters and provide correct data as to how much schools and children have been affected by a particular catastrophe," said Taibu.
Neno District Council Relief Officer also called on education clusters to drill education authorities in early warning systems and the use of traditional disaster detectors besides scientific ones to reduce impact of disasters.
The Neno district council through the office of the district education manager conducted its monthly Cluster and Technical Working Group meeting with an aim of reviewing the education sector activities and sharing of the next month plan.
The education cluster chairperson, Nedson Thyoka, has promised to continue conducting the cluster meetings every month to determine progress of their works in lessening disasters in schools.