Storybook about disaster risk reduction

[Roly Hermans]

As part of the What's the Plan Stan educational resource we developed for the New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Managment, we wrote a storybook for students (see attachment). The five stories all feature Stan, the dog who is the main character in the What's the Plan Stan educational resource, along with the five children characters who also feature in the resource. Each story looks at a particular kind of disaster (earthquake, volcanic eruption, tsunami, flood and storm), and describes what to do before, during and after that type of event.

We also produced these stories as an audio CD and as separate audio files. The latter will be downloadable from www.whatstheplanstan.govt.nz when the latest site upgrade goes live in early August.

The stories have also been revised for use in Māori language immersion classes. The stories were not just translated, but completely revised to reflect the Māori world view. The Māori versions (both print and audio) are able to be downloaded from: http://www.whatstheplanstan.govt.nz/kia_takatu_eng.htm

On a personal note, I'm quite proud of these stories, as this was an opportunity to combine my work with my interest in writing children's stories!

[Justin Sharpe]

Cheers for the resource Roly! Very helpful to share this with the network! A storybook is often useful for much younger children and can lead to games and role play where children experience what to do in a hazard event to protect themselves. Also this positive psychological memory will help them to be prepared without being scared!