Dominican Republic takes lessons from Haiti quake

As Haiti continues to make a slow recovery from the catastrophic earthquake that devastated the nation two years ago, its neighbour Dominican Republic is bracing itself to be better prepared for future disasters, writes Davinder Kumar for the Huffington Post. Approaches like involving communities, especially children and young people, to minimise the impact of disasters are key to Dominican Republic where a large proportion of about 10 million population are vulnerable to hazards due to inadequate planning and poor constructions.

"It is very important that both children and parents to have disaster training. I know that children and young people in my school are better informed and prepared than many adults on how to react to disaster situations. What is even better is that they are teaching their families about it," says school Principal José Nicolas Diaz.