Disasters can be prevented
Natural disasters like floods, droughts and earthquakes destroy the lives of more than 300 million people every year. Disasters can affect anybody at any time. But in most cases the poorest and most vulnerable people are affected first and are hit the hardest.

Natural disasters are not uncontrollable, random events. Climate change is increasing the strength and frequency of storms, cyclones, floods and droughts. The impact of these disasters depends on people’s vulnerability and their ability to cope. By building community resilience and by helping people to adapt to climate change, we can reduce the impact of future disasters.

This document presents the objectives of ActionAid’s five-year Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) through Schools project (2006-11) aiming to: (i) support the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action through innovative, grassroots DRR programmes; (ii) build local communities’ capacity to act on their own behalf and secure their basic rights, using Participatory Vulnerability Analysis (PVA); and (iii) advocate for governments to uphold their responsibilities to protect their populations. It also introduces the concepts of disaster risk reduction and Participatory Vulnerability Analysis (PVA), and highlights progress to date against all five pillars of the Hyogo Framework for Action in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Ghana, Malawi and Haiti.

http://www.actionaid.org/docs/drrs%20leaflet%20final.pdf