Prepared children – safer schools!
During rescue drills in Rainci Gornji and Tojšići elementary schools, children prepared to react in case of wildfire emergency through a multisectoral response
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At 11 o'clock sharp, siren marked the beginning of the evacuation and rescue mock drill in case of fire in the Rainci Gornji Elementary School outside Kalesija. Following an established sequence and not panicking, children left the school building and were safe at assembly points in the school yard in less than five minutes. It also took that long for the firefighters from the Kalesija Professional Firefighting Brigade to arrive and start „extinguishing the fire” and rescuing the “injured students” who remained in the “burning” school building, from which the remaining firefighters and teachers escaped by jumping through the window onto the inflatable rescue mattress. Before the beginning of the drill, staff of the Centre for Social Welfare prepared a social service Contingency Plan for the most vulnerable students, which the rescue services used as guidance.
The Contingency Plan, developed in coordination with school preparedness plans, includes different components such as search and rescue, referrals to other services, and the ability to provide cash assistance to affected families. This is to ensure that in the event of an emergency, lives and livelihoods are safeguard and families are supported through a recovery process, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable.
“This is a drill demonstration! Our firefighters are moving at a slower pace than in a real life situation so you can track everything that is going on!”, Selim Bečić, experienced firefighter from the Kalesija PFB, who rated the drill as a “ten”, is explaining every step through a megaphone:
“Everyone did their part of what we agreed with utmost seriousness. We are happy with the way the teachers prepared everything with the children, we are satisfied with the way children responded, and it is obviously easier for us professionals to do our job when we arrive to a school where everyone is prepared and know what they are supposed to do; such a school is a safer school,” says Selim Bečić, adding that more such drills should be organised in all schools:
“We need to have more such drills in order to be prepared for real life situations, should they happen. Together with the teachers we tried to drill the children so that the evacuation starts with the lower grades, whose classrooms should be at the lower floors, as well as children with disabilities, and to continue with senior students, so that there is no stampeding.”
The area was secured by the police, which arrived first, and was followed by the ambulance, while the teams of the Kalesija Municipality Red Cross provided first aid to the “injured”, and prepared one of them to be transported by the ambulance to the Kalesija Health Care Centre. The Mobile Crises Team of the Kalesija Centre for Social Welfare was ready to provide psycho-social support to the children and the gathered parents, in order to prevent traumatisation and panic among the most vulnerable ones.
Mirza, an eighth-grader, was one of the “injured” students:
“I am satisfied with the firefighters’ response, they arrived on time, everything unfolded according to the plan. The Red Cross did a great job, both in rescuing, and in preparing our appearance and make-up. We learnt that in case of fire we have to leave the classrooms in an organised manner, to walk in a line, and should not rush and cause panic,” says Mirza, and is joined by Alija, who also participated in the drill:
“He would have been forgotten had I not reacted, and that is why we need to be alert, think of ourselves and the others, and leave the building on time!” says Alija. Others who played the part of injured students are also happy:
“This was awesome, and we need to do this again! We learnt how to behave in case of real fire, how to evacuate and save ourselves. These things are very useful, to us and to save human lives, because after all, lives matter the most,” Belma and Himzo said.
Young members of the Kalesija Municipality Red Cross were in charge of the realistic appearance of the “injured” with the help of the smx make-up. During the drill, they simulated providing first aid. Representative of the young members of the Red Cross, Lejla Bureković, and of the conference of the young members of the Red Cross, Jasmina Šehić, both said they were very happy with the participation of their teams, and the children’s reactions:
“It is important for children to primarily know not the cause panic in case something happens, to be aware what might happen. Panic only causes additional problems, and it’s good they had the opportunity to experience something like this, so that they can be ready for a real life situation to a certain degree,” says Lejla, while Jasmina points out that there were no flaws, and everything went according to plan:
“This is extremely important for us volunteers, as practice makes perfect. This is an opportunity to practice and enhance our knowledge, and to show others what to do and how to act in this type of situations”.
Senaid Tupajić from the Civil Protection and coordinator of the municipal disaster risk reduction platform and the drill consultant, said that the drill deserved the highest rating:
“The school management demonstrated high level of expertise and professionalism and took a serious approach to the drill, as did the children and all other participants, who did their best. During the drill, the children showed the most efficient way to evacuate, and who are those who will help them, and were taught that there is a protection and rescue system in place that will assist them at any moment. The most important impact of such drills is to reduce panic, which is inevitable when something happens, particularly among children,”, he says, adding that this also reduces fear, and “in case of an accident, children would certainly handle it easier and more realistically, they would be able to respond easier, and there would be no undesired consequences that might be caused by fear and panic”.
The goal of the exercise was to test the local preparedness model, which the mobile team for disasters of the Kalesija Centre for Social Welfare coordinates with the Civil Protection and elementary schools, focusing in particular on fire scenario and attention to the most vulnerable children.
Dirctor of the Kalesija Centre for Social Welfare, Muhamed Majdandžić, says that the drill in Gornji Rainci, which we attended, and the drill in the Tojšići Elementary School, organised the previous day, served to demonstrate the preparedness of services and institutions:
“Significance of these drill demonstrations lies in the fact that on the one hand we checked the preparedness level of the protection and rescue services, and on the other hand we showed these two schools what their advantages and disadvantages are in terms of protection and rescue. Another benefit is that school were assessed for the level of vulnerability and got a protection and rescue plan interlinked with the vulnerability assessment and the plan of the Centre for Social Welfare.”
The exercise was held as part of multisectoral climate change and disaster preparedness efforts supported by UNICEF. The aim is to strengthen the preparedness of social welfare centers for emergency situations in cooperation with schools and other providers of social services and protection and rescue departments. For example, vulnerable families are pre-mapped against hazards to be able to identify at-risk families to enable the quick scale up of social services and cash assistance if impacted by the hazards. This comprehensive approach is to meet the needs – financial and non-financial - of children and families in a holistic way.
Principal of the Elementary School, Sadika Mehmedović, says that the drill met the expectations, and was conducted with all the participants being well coordinated:
“This is a great experience for the students, because they participated in the drill and had the opportunity to see professionals at work. Training both teachers and students is very important, it is important that in case of a disaster and an unforeseeable situation, such as fire, we are all prepared, and there is no panic, which causes most injuries. Children did not contain their excitement because of the drill and they will certainly remember this day.”
The drill was also organised in the Tojšići Elementary School the day before, and the school principal, Nezira Islamović pointed out that in the current situation, such drills are always welcome:
“We prepared the children for the drill, we had a meeting with all the homeroom teachers, I visited every class and spoke with children, which is why everything worked according to the plan, and was a huge and positive experience for the children. It turned out that we need this type of drills, particularly with the current state of affairs in the country and around the world. Not only drills, but lectures on how children should act in case of accidents, to wake up the children and their awareness a bit.
The drill was conducted as part of inter-sectoral efforts supported by UNICEF BiH through the thematic preparedness fund to enhance the preparedness of the Centres for Social Welfare for disasters in cooperation with schools and other special services providers, and protection and rescue services.
Since 2019, UNICEF works with social protection authorities and local governments to scale local-level SRSP model to 15 locations [1]highly prone to hazards – flooding, wildfires - reaching more than 18,500 beneficiaries and children with crisis-prepared social protection services, with contingency actions defined in case of an emergency and cash assistance successfully scaled up in the event of a flood in one location. Out of the 15 locations, 4 champion ones are selected to further upgrade the local SRSP model. This includes extension of local crisis referral systems and broadening cooperation with emergency responders, including schools as critical child service provider at local level. Municipality of Kalesija, along with the Cities of Banja Luka, Trebinje and Bihac is pioneering this upgrade process. By upgrading their Vulnerability Assessments and Crisis Preparedness and Contingency Action Plans, more than 6,000 families and children in four locations are pre-identified to be covered with risk-informed social protection services and cash activation in different emergency scenarios.
The model represents innovation, being the first sub-national shock-responsive social protection model in the Western Balkans. UNICEF used this operational success & advocacy to institutionalise the work at the entity levels by developing and having two entity-level Shock-Responsive Social Protection (SRSP) Road Maps endorsed representing a strategic pioneering milestone for establishing risk-informed social protection cash benefits and services in BiH.
Shock-responsive social protection is defined as one of the building blocks in the country’s overall vision to mobilize all sectoral resources for supporting the most vulnerable groups in reducing, coping and recovering from shocks and crisis, and this work is also informing the development of SRSP pillar of the country-wide DRR Strategies.
[1] 10 local communities are supported by the Government of Switzerland as part of the Joint UN DRR Programme.
