In the context of climate change, natural disasters in Vietnam have many complicated developments, and it is difficult to predict how extreme these developments will be. This difficulty poses many great challenges to natural disaster prevention in Vietnam. The Prime Minister has decided to make the week from the 15 to 22 every year as the National Week for Natural Disaster Prevention.

This year, the National Disaster Prevention Week’s theme was "Disaster risk reduction starting from the community".

Responding to this year's National Disaster Prevention Week, the People's Committee of Gio Hai commune cooperated with the Center for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) to organize communication activities to promote and give prominence to the roles, responsibilities, and active participation of the whole community, including people with disabilities in natural disaster prevention and control.

Additionally, these communication activities create an environment for people with disabilities (PWDs) to participate in, exchange culture and arts, share experiences, and integrate into the community; thereby improving the position of PWDs, and communication about the inclusion and participation of people with disabilities in disaster risk prevention and mitigation.

Participating in the activity were more than 300 disabled people, relatives, village heads, and leaders of 7 project communes, including Gio Linh town, Gio My, Gio Hai, Trung Hai, Trung Son, Gio Phong, and Gio Chau communes.

This activity is within the framework of the project "Improving the position of people with disabilities" in the period of 2018-2022, implemented in the Gio Linh district and is funded by Caritas Australia and the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Center for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD).

Some images show the activities happening in the communication activities

Sharing some first aid skills on the spot

Community integration activities