Global Disaster Reduction and Relief

Since 2018, the Mustard Seed Mission has established the Community Disaster Prevention and Relief Center to promote the nationwide community training program to build up the strength of self-disaster prevention by deepening the individual awareness of disaster prevention as well as the organization and mobilization of the community.

We learn from our experience in training the community people that whether it is in cooperation with the local community association or the governmental agents, the majority of the participants are the middle-aged and elderly people. Therefore, it took us a lot of time to develop the suitable language and methods that senior citizens can understand. We hope that their participations are not just "sit" and listen but rather acquire the knowledge through "doing". Thus, "activities and implementations" are the characteristics of our course design. The course composes mainly with pictures and texts, supplemented by videos, and is conveyed in mandarin/Taiwanese mixed dialect, so that the community people can understand the importance of disaster prevention.

In order to reduce the distance between students in the course, "poster paper, post-it notes, and maps" have almost become our necessary props in each course design. In addition to learning, we also believe that "community people are experts in solving their own community problems." Through the participation and discussion, the disaster prevention measures suitable for their own communities will naturally be derived. Our lecturers are only of the guiding role!

In the middle of this year, due to the epidemic, many community training courses were suspended. Fortunately, the epidemic eased and the policy was slightly lifted in August 2021. We stepped up our pace and conducted two training courses in Tainan and Kaohsiung. From disaster self-protection to unifying the past disaster experience of our community, as well as possible disaster crises, to the organization and mobilization of the community at the end, we use various teaching materials to lead community students to do and think in each class. We are very happy that we received feedback from many community students after the course: "The course is simple and easy to understand, with pictures and practical exercises, it is easy and interesting, and impressive. In particular, some questions and answers in the classroom help us to clarify the correct concept. " That's the kind of learning we have been looking forward to bringing to the community.

In the past, when it comes to community disaster prevention, many people intuitively feel that the courses are just listening to lecturers, boring and uninteresting. However, through the experience of accompanying many communities in the past few years, we have found that in fact, we only need to use appropriate teaching materials and teaching aids, and integrate the concept of disaster prevention into the life of the students. As the result, disaster prevention is not difficult and related to the students. As the community member, they are closely related; the concept can lead the students to pay attention to and learn about disaster prevention in the community. Thanks to the feedback and encouragement of our students, we will continue to accompany and nurture more communities.