SEEDS conducts earthquake safety drill in Delhi and trains more than 2500 students in DRR techniques

SEEDS celebrated the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction by demonstrating disaster management skills through an earthquake mock drill at Shahid Rajpal D.A.V. Public School, Dayanand Vihar. Part of the SEEDS School Safety Initiative (SSSI), the earthquake mock drill was conducted after a week-long training program which focused on response, evacuation and first aid. This programme, is being conducted across 7 schools this year in Delhi, trying to reach out to more than 15,000 students.

SEEDS School Safety Initiative strives to channel some of the energy, vision and enthusiasm which young minds posses, towards safety, preparedness and respect for environment. The aim, over a period of time is to embed these ethoses in our social consciousness like cleanliness and respecting the laws.

The impact of such a learning programme is only gauged properly when it is put to test. SEEDS has identified mock drills as the most useful exercise to check the preparedness of a system in case of any eventuality. When an earthquake evacuation drill is conducted in a school, students are trained to duck, cover and hold during an earth quake tremor and evacuate the building through safe evacuation route, and assemble in the safe area class wise. The missing/trapped students are identified, rescued and first aid is provided to them.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Sandeep Dikshit, Member of Parliament, East Delhi said “Having witness the plight of people after a major disaster in 2004, while visiting Tamil Nadu. I appreciate the efforts being put in to build a culture of preparedness in the students here. It was a pleasant experience to witness our future generation taking part in mock drill with unmatched enthusiasm and coordination. I am sure this training has prepared the students to take informed and intelligent decisions in case of any such eventuality”.

Mr. Manu Gupta, Director and co-founder, SEEDS said “Success of today’s activity strengthens the passion with which we started off on our quest to educate and sensitize large number of students across schools. Through this initiative, we have succeeded in passing the message and skills of safety against disasters and respect for environment not only to children but also the community at large through them. This initiative and today’s drill in particular has helped in setting a mental recall about the to-do things in case of any such eventuality. We are overwhelmed by the support extended by our sponsors, the school and students”

"The mock drill today shows our commitment to safety and well being of our students. I am sure that my students have gained some life saving skills through this exercise. We plan to keep having these drills in future to keep ourselves prepared” said Mrs. Renu Laroiya, Principal of the school.

Also present on the occasion were Ms. Sara Poehlman, Education Specialist, UNICEF India and Ms. Margarita Tileva, Chief Emergency, UNICEF India.

SEEDS had started its School Safety Initiative in 2005 in partnership with Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority, Government of Gujarat. SEEDS has covered around 3000 schools and more than 3,00,000 children have been sensitized and trained so far.