10/22/15 · Institutional

European project with children and adolescents to improve disaster management

Identifying safe places and recognizing the unsafe ones, designing evacuation maps, knowing the material risks of a disaster, learning to take refuge in the event of an emergency, dividing roles to improve response, and being aware of the most useful material needs and having them planned in advance are some of the advice from children who have survived some form of disaster.

Children are the subject of disaster management plans and of prevention and protection measures, but they are also an active part who should be taken into consideration and recognized in the implementation and design of plans. The aim of the CUIDAR (H2020) research project is to tackle the participation of children and adolescents in improving management models, identifying their needs (at a psychological, social and material level) and empowering them as a group in the organization and management of all types of natural and social disasters before, during and after the emergency.

Coordinated by Lancaster University, and with the participation of researchers from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, the University of Thessaly, the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon and the Save the Children organization (Italy and the United Kingdom) the CUIDAR project seeks to "empower this social group and make it a vital part both for the prevention and for the proper recovery from a natural disaster," states Israel Rodríguez Giralt, a UOC researcher working on the project. CUIDAR will create a "framework for communication and participation that focuses on this group so that politicians and disaster management experts and workers can improve their planning and response in emergency situations," states Daniel López Goméz, UOC researcher and project member.

"Together with the elderly and the disabled, children are among the most forgotten groups in disaster planning and management. They are often reduced to a mere passive and homogeneous object of aid, policies and strategies designed by experts and professionals. Our project is aimed at focusing on them as active subjects, with the ability to inform and transform disaster management significantly," state UOC researchers Israel Rodríguez-Giralt and Daniel López Gómez.

The CUIDAR project has received funding of 2 million euros, of which the UOC will be administering 275,000, as part of the Horizon 2020 programme, within the European Union's research and competitiveness framework. The money will be used to work over three years with and for children aged between 6 and 14 from countries such as England, Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy.

A leading collaboration of multidisciplinary academics and professionals from various institutions will work so that "children and adolescents who have lived through disasters or particularly destabilizing situations, earthquakes, floods, fires, episodes of pollution or economic poverty are able to convey their experiences and perceptions to the principal professionals and technical teams in charge of planning for and managing emergencies and disasters".

The researchers add that "working directly with children will promote socio-psychological resources to analyse the main problems faced by this group in emergency situations. At the same time, it will enable a much more informed work on models of resilience and recovery from these situations".

To achieve this, the CUIDAR project pursues the following aims:

  • Raise awareness of the perception of risk, the needs of disasters and the ability of children to face them.
     
  • Strengthen the understanding of emergencies and of the actions that may be carried out to respond to them at an individual, family and community level.
     
  • Make communication between civil protection workers and children in urban contexts more effective.
     
  • Improve the disaster management framework, policies and practices so that they take the particular needs of children and adolescents into greater consideration.
     
  • Raise the awareness and understanding of the key role of children and adolescents among the various experts and professionals involved in civil protection and the response to disaster situations.
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