Author: Plan Asia
File size: 1.2mb
Number of pages: 48
Published: December 2005

"Engaging with children in disaster response, recovery and risk reduction: learning from children’s participation in the tsunami response"

Tens of thousands of children lost their lives in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The violent exposure to the tsunami and the loss of family, friends, homes, schools and communities affected the surviving children in many ways. These children also played a role in the rescue and emergency stages, a role that has hardly been acknowledged. One year on, many children were frustrated and disempowered by the long delays in re-building their homes, schools and family livelihood, and the lack of opportunities to play a more active part in reconstruction.

The perspectives provided by children in this report help us understand the problems that occurred post-tsunami and the effectiveness of the assistance programmes that governments and private organisations provided. The report calls for governments, international institutions and aid agencies to change their perception of child participation and include it in the disaster response, recovery and risk reduction.