Top End kids are getting prepared

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 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.