Earthquake School Drill at the “Selami Hallaqi” Primary School
in Gjilan
The year 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the devastating
Skopje Earthquake (1963) which had a
major impact also in Kosovo. Currently the Kosovo Institute of
Seismology is a sector of the Mining
Department within the Ministry for Economic Development and is
lacking capacity in terms of staff and
resources. Children at school are not trained how to behave in
case of earthquakes, no school drills are
being organized and there is a lack of initiative at local level
to do such preparedness activities. The most
at risk Municipality from earthquakes according to Earthquake
Risk Assessment Map in Kosovo is the
Municipality of Gjilan.
On 5th December 2013, The International Volunteer Day, UNDP
Kosovo, UN Volunteer, Save the Children and IFRC in
partnership
with Emergency Management Agency/Ministry of Internal
Affairs,
Red Cross of Kosova and Municipality of Gjilan organized an
Earthquake School Drill in order to support the Municipality
of
Gjilan in capacity development for disasters such as
earthquakes
are.
Beside the preparatory workshops that were organized for
teachers, school technical personnel and the local emergency
management authorities (Police, Firefighters, etc.), a
specific
scenario was drafted to involve all relevant authorities at
the
exercise. Every official authority had its role and
responsibility
during the earthquake drill.
Emergency evacuation plans, information posters on how should a
student behave during an
earthquake and fire, child specific brochure, fire
distinguishers are some other emergency preparedness
and management asset which was provided to the school as
necessary elements of a safe school
building.
Below you will find some pictures which show the process of the
school drill.
UNDP thanks all involved national and internationals partners at
this exercise for the excellent work and
collaboration.
