SEEDS Asia English website

On September 5, Lalmatia Housing Society School and Collage and SEEDS Asia conducted a town watching and on-campus hazard hunting exercise. Apart from the members of school governing body and teachers, Fire Service and Civil Defence and community leaders also joined the exercise to undertake the risk assessment and action planning together.

The Lalmatia school has a large area where students’ hostel and principal’s residence are also located. While the school has a large playground which is not always the case in Dhaka, many problems were found, for example the discovery that there was only one route to go outside from the building, and that there were many things stored on the staircase that could be obstacles to a smooth evacuation.

The participants discussed the uncovered risks earnestly with the common objective of protecting the students’ safety. After the activity, one of the teachers told us that the usual and familiar school premises looked very different as she walked around looking for risks and assuming a disaster had happened, and that made her realize the importance of disaster risk reduction.