World Tsunami Awareness Day 2025 in Timor-Leste

The World Tsunami Awareness Day celebration 2025 in Timor-Leste will feature a tsunami evacuation exercise – a walk from the coast in Kampung Marinir, Dili, to a temporary assembly point, involving students, community members and local authorities. The drill will demonstrate evacuation procedures, highlight safe zones, and strengthen coordination between schools, communities, and local authorities. Adding a creative dimension, the event will include a musical tsunami preparedness song, developed and performed with local artists. This initiative aims to communicate key safety messages through song, using local language, instruments, and storytelling to resonate with communities.

In the lead-up to the evacuation exercise, preparedness sessions will be held with participating schools on 5–6 November. These sessions will cover tsunami awareness to ensure active and informed participation.

Objectives:

• Raise awareness of tsunami risk and the importance of preparedness, including at the community level.
• Demonstrate practical readiness through a school and community evacuation drill.
• Promote investment needs in evacuation routes, school safety infrastructure, and public awareness initiatives.
• Highlight national and international collaboration to strengthen tsunami resilience and early warning systems, including partnerships between the Government of Timor-Leste, Portugal, UNDRR and UNESCO-IOC.

Partners include: The Civil Protection Authority (CPA) of Timor-Leste, UNDRR, IOTIC of UNESCO-IOC in UNESCO Regional Office in Jakarta, Pacifico Risk Communication, Ra’es Hadomi Timor Oan (RHTO), UNDP, UN Resident Coordinator Office and the Embassy of Portugal in Timor-Leste