Disaster Risk Reduction: Children must be Participate

"We urge the government to act decisively, ensure that children and the community get their rights and are protected from disasters, periodically evaluate facilities and infrastructure for safety issues as a public service, and we hope that they do not forget to involve children and youth and continue to hear their voices," said Indah.

Indah is assisted child of Wahana Visi Indonesia in the SINERGI project which focuses on social inclusion in disaster risk reduction. Indah had the opportunity to share her involvement in disaster risk reduction in the "Moving Words into Actions: Children and Youth Perspectives on Promoting Sendai Framework Priorities" session as part of the Global Platform Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) 2022 on Thursday (26/05) with representatives of children -Children from other countries.

In this session, Indah told how she and her friends accommodated children's voices and aspirations, and how they shared these children's voices with stakeholders.

Indah is a Citizen Voice and Action (CVA) facilitator from the East Jakarta Children's Forum accompanied by Wahana Visi Indonesia. According to Indah, several aspects of government services can be improved, one of which is by involving children and young people to make changes, helping the community to be ready to face the impacts of climate change, and minimizing the impact of potential disasters. 

“In Indonesia, we, from children and youth groups, try to advocate for the government to improve their roles and responsibilities. One of the approaches is CVA. CVA is Citizen Voice and Action, an advocative approach and ‘proven to be an effective approach as well to recognize the rights of children, youth, and disabilities to participate in improving the quality of public services provided by the governments. We implement CVA to improve the quality of disaster management services. Since 2021, I have been chosen as a CVA facilitator from East Jakarta. In my opinion, a CVA is a simple approach which is easy for youth like me to take and understand,” said Indah.

“Some people think as far as tomorrow. Others think years ahead. Ignoring children, you prepare for now. Involving children, you prepare for the future," concluded Indah in her closing statement.

Written by: Yuventa, Marcomm Manager Wahana Visi Indonesia