Red Cross aims to make schools more resilient
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Red Cross has launched a new project to help improve the resilience of local schools against natural events, including hurricanes. CIRC has received CI$350,000 for Resilience Initiative for Students and Educators (RISE) from the European Union’s RESEMBID Programme and will be working in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the Department of Education Services to help schools adapt to extreme and recurrent natural events.
Two areas of focus have been identified. The first is the development and provision of a resilience curriculum consisting of a digital resource library for school teachers containing age-appropriate videos, lesson plans, and other resources to teach resilience in a culturally appropriate way.
The second aim is to establish a cadre of teachers and staff trained as qualified First Aid instructors, who will then train additional teachers across all government schools, building the number of trained staff.
The learning objectives of the RISE curriculum include the need for more resilience in Cayman society to adapt to extreme and recurrent man-made and natural disasters, as well as fostering a generation of better-prepared school children in areas of health and hygiene, natural disaster preparedness and response, and child safety and well-being. The full curriculum will be made available for free to all primary school teachers to reach about 500 primary school students.
The resources for secondary school students will be focused on disaster preparedness.
“Project RISE represents a significant step forward in our mission to increase resilience in the Cayman Islands community,” said CIRC Director Jondo Obi. “We are proud to be part of this important initiative that will equip our educators and students with the tools and skills they need to adapt to extreme and recurrent natural events. We look forward to working with our partners to make this project a success.”
As part of the educational program, CIRC will produce a series of educational videos featuring the popular characters Bobo and Teedee, as well as local first responders from the emergency response agencies. These resources will highlight how first responders keep the islands safe and help teach students important lessons on staying safe and healthy. The curriculum will be designed as a holistic unit of learning and will be developed using educational best practices.
The First Aid training component of the project will involve CIRC training ten school staff members as First Aid instructors, who will then train 20 additional staff members at their school. All schools will also be provided with all the necessary resources and equipment to conduct the additional training, with the goal of certifying an additional 200 teachers.
CIRC will evaluate the training conducted by the newly certified First Aid Instructors to ensure the quality of the training is consistent with the standards of the Red Cross.
“RISE is one of the real change makers under the Resilience portfolio by virtue of how many people and age groups the learnings will positively impact,” said Programme Manager for Resilience for RESEMBID Edward Turvill. He said he was looking forward to receiving the results and outcomes.
One of 48 projects being implemented through the regional overseas territories, RISE is one of eight projects here in the Cayman Islands under the oversight of the Cabinet Office.
For more information or to support the Rise project, contact Edu@RedCross.org.ky
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Category: Local News
the gravy train one of the most corrupt NGO’s keeps on rolling. 350k to teach ‘resilience’, really? isn’t first aid training something all teachers should already have?
Ah yes, another example of Ms Juli throwing money at a shiny new toy without first evaluating its relevance. Then to say school teachers should deliver this new curriculum….and what exactly is the $350,000 for? This is starting to look like the laptop saga all over again.
CNS: If you read the article instead of simply looking at the picture you’d know that the CIG is not funding this project. The $350k is coming from the EU.
Positive impact, positive impact……
“He said he was looking forward to receiving the results and outcomes.” Who exactly is He to be receiving results and outcomes…What does this even mean?
Someone somewhere has too much money and nothing to do. Too much focus on SAVING everything and everyone.
How about teaching kids crafts? When I was in school, boys were taught woodworking and how to use basic tools. Girls were taught how to cook, knit and sew. We weren’t taught first aid and basic hygiene. The former was hardly ever needed, the latter was common sense.
The one thing kids need to know is that after a hurricane or flooding the environment is very toxic and will remain toxic for quite sometime. It not only destroys houses, but heavily pollutes environment. Hurricanes unleashed spills of harmful chemicals and sewage, and contact with floodwaters could make people and animals seriously sick. Storm-related flooding, loss of power, and property damage lead to the release of toxic chemicals into the environment.
Bobo and Teedee? In what Universe EU RISE is living? Certainly they’ve never been to Cayman.
What this Programme has to do with “resilience of local schools against natural events, including hurricanes”?
Will kids and teachers learn how to reinforce structures of school buildings to withstand Cat.5??
What natural events are they talking about? Rain is a natural event- do schools need to be resilient to rain? Or they are talking about natural disasters such avalanche, coastal flooding, cold wave, drought, earthquake, hail, heat wave, tornadoes , hurricane (tropical cyclone), ice storm, etc?
As far as I know everyone is safely hunkered down in their houses/offices, not schools, on approaching storm or a hurricane. Not much could be done by children or teachers during flooding- kids must be kept safe and not allowed to venture out to avoid exposure to all kind of hazards when the water recedes.
Please tell me in simple and plain English what this nonsensical project is about?
P.S. The penultimate paragraph is very confusing… who is Edward Turvill anyway?
Focus, development, provision, curriculum…this verbal diarrhea will accomplish exactly what is expected after eating a word salad.