On 26th & 27th November 2015 the Mauritius Red Cross Society organised a two-day workshop to establish a platform dedicated to creating educational tools to raise awareness of natural risks. Institutional, technical and academic stakeholders were all present.
On 26th & 27th November 2015 the Mauritius Red Cross Society organised a two-day workshop to establish a platform dedicated to creating educational tools to raise awareness of natural risks. Institutional, technical and academic stakeholders were all present.
In 2015, as part of its Disaster Risk Management programme, PIROI launched a project to strengthen the capacities of Mauritius Red Cross called ‘Building safer and more resilient communities in Mauritius and Rodrigues islands’. As part of this programme Mauritius Red Cross intends to develop new activities to raise awareness and increase public preparedness for natural disasters and the foreseeable impacts of climate change.
The goal of Mauritius Red Cross and its partners was to stimulate and catch the public’s attention, and to interest them in the need to be prepared for natural risks; the workshop was aimed at creating educational packages to both inform and raise awareness of risks.
These educational tools will be innovative, but they need to be inspired by the Mauritian context and local traditions in order to generate public interest and encourage participation. Although educating young people about risks is a priority for PIROI and Mauritius Red Cross, nevertheless these resources must have an impact on the general public to ensure shared risk awareness is promoted in Mauritius.
The Mauritius Red Cross Society, which is on the point of signing a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Education, wished to set up a network of different partners. Whether they be institutional (National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Centre (NDRRMC), Ministry of Education, Mauritius Institute of Education), technical (Mauritius Meteorological Services, Microsoft Indian Ocean Islands) or academic (University of Mauritius, The Charles Telfair Institute, Université des Mascareignes, Institut Supérieur de Technologie), all partners have responded to the Red Cross’s appeal, and assured the latter of their support and cooperation in this action intended to raise public awareness of the risk of natural disasters.
