Our Disaster Child Friendly Glossary

Step by step

Initial brainstorming: The teacher asks the class which are the known natural disasters and to associate words to each of these. The group writes the answers on a single piece of paper, which can be in the form of a word cloud on Padlet.

The words for emergencies and safety culture. In this phase, the teacher lists a series of words and then asks for a definition to be associated with each of these:                               

TERMS:

DANGER - EXPOSURE - MITIGATION - PREDICTION - VULNERABILITY - RISK - RESILIENCE - DISASTER PREVENTION

DEFINITIONS

A- A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or society, at any scale, due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability and capacity, leading to one or more of the following consequences: human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts.

B- is the number of units (or "value") of each of the elements at risk present in a given area, such as human lives or settlements.

C- The reduction or minimization of the negative impacts of a dangerous event.

D- Probability that a damaging event of a given intensity will occur in a given area within a given period of time, the time of recurrence.

E- Activities aimed at avoiding or minimizing the possibility of damage resulting from a calamitous event

F- Activity aimed at determining the causes of calamitous phenomena, at identifying the risks and defining the territory affected by the risk.

G- The ability of a community to face calamitous events, to overcome them and to come out of them strengthened or even transformed.

H- The expected value of losses (human lives, injuries, damage to property and economic activities) due to the occurrence of an event of a given intensity, in a particular area, in a given period of time.

I- Aptitude of a given environmental component – human population, buildings, services, infrastructures, etc. – to bear the effects of an event, according to its intensity.

This is expressed on a scale of zero to one, where zero means no damage and one means total destruction.

Other terms and definitions can be found in these 2 glossaries:

https://www.undrr.org/terminology

https://www.protezionecivile.gov.it/it/glossario

The child-friendly glossary: in this phase, we move on to creating a class glossary: for each term, there is a definition that is clear and understandable to everyone, which is translated into the languages used in the class. Once completed, it is disseminated to the other classes.

Below are some possible definitions:

Disaster: An unexpected event that causes harm and disruption or upheaval to normal life.

Earthquake: A sudden shaking of the ground resulting from movements in the earth's crust. It can cause damage and claim lives.

Exposure: The number of people and items that can be damaged or affected because they are located in a risk area.

Mitigation: Reducing the effects of a disaster.

Natural risk: A phenomenon caused by natural factors that can affect people and the environment.

Anthropic risk: Dangerous phenomena caused by human beings.

Prevention: The action of reducing vulnerability and exposure by preventing a risk from becoming a disaster.

Resilience: The ability to deal with disasters and overcome their effects.

Vulnerability: The possibility of being affected or damaged by a disaster.