Top End kids are getting prepared
Kids in communities evacuated when a cyclone crashed into their community, are learning what to do, and pack, if they face emergencies in the future.
In January 2019, Cyclone Trevor bore down on Australia's northern coast. More than 2,000 people in remote Northern Territory communities were caught in the line of the storm.
The biggest evacuation effort since Cyclone Tracey whisked into action. Families, old people and hundreds of children found safety at one of our evacuation centres in Darwin and Katherine.
One year down the track, the same children evacuated from those communities are now emergency prepared should an evacuation happen in the future.
Getting prepared
Our emergency teams travelled from Ngkurr to Booraloola, Robinson River across to the Tiwi Islands to deliver disaster preparation training in schools in the six affected communities.
The training involved a pillowcase, colouring pens and lots of imagination.
Why a pillowcase?
Pillowcase Project is our disaster resilience education program designed to help children prepare psychologically and practically for an emergency.
Each student is given a pillowcase which will become their personal emergency kit. They decorate their pillowcase with the items they will take with them in any emergency.
Why kids?
Children have considerable strengths, and their knowledge, creativity, energy and enthusiasm can impact positively on the whole family.
So much so that when we train kids, it encourages behaviour change in the whole family.
Nationally, more than half of all households feel more prepared after their children are part of Pillowcase than they did three months earlier.
We hope families in the Top End feel the same.
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