prologueThe Category 5 Educational model can help reduce the impact of shock, improving and helping the community to recover their stan-dard of living, with a new and fresh start (D.R.O.P.S). It is about helping individuals to cope in the aftermath of a natural disaster by remaining calm and assisting them to deve-lop the knowledge, skills, values and attitu-des for a better understanding, appreciation and a sense of caring for the environment af-ter experiencing a disaster event.Category 5 can help play an important role is in this process by providing a stable and fa-miliar environment. The following workbook

is intended to help the community return, to whatever extent possible, to normal activities and routines, and provide an opportunity to transform a frightening event into a learning experience. The Educational Workbook: D.R.O.P.S has been created as a teaching tool to guide the com-munity on how to manage their reactions after the immediate threat is over and to reassure them that life will return to normal. Healing in the aftermath of a natural disaster takes time; this material will facilitate subsequent coping and healing and will help develop a transition period for the recovery phase.

The Educational Workbook: D.R.O.P.S shows a creative, useful and amusing way of hel-ping and encouraging the teachers, parents and other caregivers to contribute towards the community’s well being after experienced a disaster event. It follows Lazarus, P.J., et.al (2002) ideas to develop after a disaster event. One of the objectives of this material is for it to be a vehicle for communication between the category 5 team and the community, with the purpose of generating an awareness of health, prevention and respect for all the population.

1 How to remain calm and reassuring?

One of the most important aspects to help a community recover from a disaster is to transmit calm and hope. Community plans must address the emotional well-being of residents, including children. Putting strategies in place before an incident occurs enhances the community’s ability to improve its outcomes after an event. It is necessary to acknowledge the loss or destruction, but emphasize the community’s efforts to cleanup and rebuild. The sense of community and collective action are two key issues to work with. Listening and supporting each other is fun-damental to start a healing process among the community. According to Freire (2004) hope is an ontological need and a powerful tool to rebuild and start a new and refreshing beginning. Hope can enlighten the lives of people and motivate us to act, so we can change. We need to work collectively and trust each other, without hope we won’t be agents of social change.

Allow the community to discuss their feelings and concerns, and address any questions they may have regarding the event. Let them know that it is alright to feel sadness, frustration, anger, to be anxious and to be afraid of their immediate future and of what may happen in their lives. Provide activities that enable people to discuss their experiences. Let them know that their reac-tions are normal and expected. Based on the pedagogy of hope listen and empathize. A good exercise to practice with the community in order to remain calm and help them express their feelings and emotions is to work in pairs and let them talk for about ten minutes regarding the dramatic events they have suffered. Each partner has to talk about their own experience. While one is doing the talking the other one has to listen and be emphatic. After the ten minutes, the whole group get together to share their ideas, feelings and emotions with the community.

2 The importance of expressing feelings and emotions

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3 Talk about disaster-related events.

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People need an opportunity to discuss their experiences in a safe and accepting environ-ment. Once the community have had the opportunity to express and share their emotions and feelings among themselves, it is necessary to talk about related events that have occurred worldwide. When doing this people can understand that these events could happen, and have occurred in any community, region, country and continent, no matter what. A good activity is to provide examples of how from natural disasters communities have learned to rebuild and develop new programs to work in schools, health and community centres, with the idea of emphasizing the relevance of promoting a safe learning behaviour. Activities may include a range of methods (both verbal and nonverbal) and incorporate varying projects (e.g., drawing, stories, music, drama, audio and video recording).

4 Promote positive coping and problem-solving skills.

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Promoting citizen participation is a key tool for any successful program. However, getting peo-ple involved to participate in any activity after experiencing a huge loss is not an easy or simple task. Activities should teach the community members how to apply problem-solving skills to disaster-related stressors. Encourage people to develop realistic and positive methods of co-ping that increase their ability to manage their anxiety and to identify which strategies fit with each situation. There are many healing methods based on hope and positive thinking. Music is fun and valuable for promoting an activity to help relieve stress and tension. Creating music with instruments or rhythm toys could be a good activity.

5 Emphasize community’s resiliency.

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Resilience is the capacity to bounce back. Building resilience is like preparing for a marathon. It is not something that can be done quickly, but something that requires planning, practice, and execution. For a community to be resilient, its members must put into practice early and effective actions, so that they can respond to adversity in a healthy manner (Gurwitch RH, et.al, 2007). If residents, agencies, and organizations take meaningful and intentional actions befo-re an event, they can help the community reestablish stability after the event. Focus on their competencies. Help community members identify what they have done in the past that helped them cope when they were frightened or upset. Bring their attention to other communities that have experienced natural disasters and recovered.

6 Strengthen friendshipand peer support.

Community members with strong emotional support from others are better able to cope with adversity. Individuals relationships with peers can provide suggestions for how to cope and can help decrease isolation. In many disaster situations, friendships may be disrupted because of family relocations. In some cases, parents may be less available to provide support for their children because of their own distress and feelings of being overwhelmed. Activities such as asking children to work cooperatively in small groups can help children strengthen supportive relationships with their peers.

7 Take care of yourown needs.

Take time for yourself and try to deal with your own reactions to the situation as fully as possible. Let the community members take their time to figure things out and to express their feelings. You will be better able to help others if you are coping well. If you are anxious or upset, people around you are more likely to feel the same way. Talk to other adults such as family, friends, faith leaders, or counselors. It is important not to dwell on your fears or anxiety by yourself. Sharing feelings with others often makes people feel more connected and secure. Help the community and particularly children know that others love them and care about them by visiting, talking on the phone or writing to family members, friends and neighbors. A good activity is practicing some physical exercises to liberate tension and stress.

Freire, P. 2004. Pedagogy of Hope. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

Gurwitch, R. H., Pfefferbaum, B., Montgomery, J. M., Klomp, R. W., & Reissman, D. B. (2007). Building community resilience for children and families. Oklahoma City: Terrorism and Disaster Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Lazarus, P.J., S.R. Jimerson and S.E. Brock. 2002. Natural Disasters. In S. E. Brock, P. J. Lazarus, & S. R. Jimerson (Eds.), Best Practices in School Crisis Prevention and Intervention (pp. 435-450), Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists and other crisis information posted on the NASP website at http://www.nasponline.org/.

Stewart E.Perry. 2000. Tools & Techniques for Community Recovery and Renewal. Centre for Community Enterprise. Canada.

> Multilateral or international- African Development Bank http://www.afdb.org/en/- Asian Development Bank http://www.adb.org- European Bank for Reconstruction and Development http://www.ebrd.com/pages/homepage.shtml- Inter-American Development Bank http://www.iadb.org- International Organization for Migration (IOM) http://www.iom.int- United Nations (UN) www.un.org- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) http://www.unicef.org- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) http://www.undp.org- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) http://www.unhcr.org- United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) http://www.unido.org

> Non-governmental organizations- Adventist Development and Relief Agency http://www.adra.org- Giving Children Hope http://www.gchope.org/- International Development Enterprises http://www.ideorg.org- Trickle Up http://www.trickleup.org- Street Kids International http://www.streetkids.org

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