DIAMOND – 3rd Intervention

DIAMOND, short for Disaster Management for Special Needs Children, is an ongoing community development by SCORP CIMSA UGM. This project is done due to the lack of knowledge of several academicians at SLB B Karnnamanohara, a special needs school for hearing-impaired children located in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, a province prone to natural disasters. With a total of three interventions, we bring up topics regarding disaster management through innovative, interactive, and interesting methods of learning.

For the first and second intervention, we targeted nine students from 5th grade. However, as the third intervention is done during the pandemic, through bilateral agreement from the school and the organizing committee, we decided to expand the target of DIAMOND by forming a group of trained instructors (consisting of teachers of the school) to create a sustainable impact.

To prepare the third intervention which was held on February 26, 2021, we held two pre-project training. The first one was done on February 8, 2021, by partnering with RedR Indonesia, a humanitarian agency engaged in inclusive emergency relief and disaster management. This pre-project training consists of three sessions with a main topic of inclusive basic disaster management and one of them is a sharing session through breakout rooms with three people with different types of disability. Furthermore, for the second pre-project training, we partnered with the Unspoken Ministry, a non-profit organization for the Deaf community. The main topic of this pre-project training is an introduction to the Deaf culture as well as various methods of communication we can use to interact with them. Finally, there is also a basic sign language training.

Apart from the two pre-project training, we partnered with the Special Region of Yogyakarta’s Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD DIY) to fix the school’s flawed evacuation system. Furthermore, still with BPBD DIY and accompanied by ASB Indonesia, we created a guidebook of disaster management including one that has been adapted to the school’s conditions. We also made a video from a first-person point-of-view which shows the evacuation route at the school. During the day of the intervention which was done through Zoom Meeting and lasted for one hour, the activity began with an opening and pre-test session for 10 minutes, then a 30-minute presentation of the guidebook by one of our members. Afterwards, we played the video we have made for 10 minutes and ended the intervention with a post-test and a closing statement for a total of 10 minutes.

Following the intervention, we hope that the teachers will be able to educate their students regarding basic disaster management as well as the evacuation routes using the learning materials we have provided for the school.