Taefu Lemi Taefu, Associate Minister for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment launched the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Disaster Risk Management (DRM) materials on 29 March, 2019. Ulu Bismarck Crawley, CEO-MNRE gave the official opening remarks. An address on behalf of the European Union (EU) was given by Ms Jenny Brown, Delegation of the European Union for the Pacific.

The materials and project packages presented are aimed to familiarise children with natural hazards and explanation of what to do when disaster strikes. Among the materials are illustrations with easy-to-follow messages that school children can practice in class with their teachers.

The main focus of the project is to increase children’s knowledge and skills, along with sharing more effective teaching methods to assist teachers in their work. The three natural disasters that are part of the project are cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis.

This is a collaborative effort between the Samoa Disaster Management Office in partnership with the Pacific Community (SPC). The ECE resources were funded by the European Union under the APU-EU Building Safety and Resilience in the Pacific (SPREP) project which has been implemented by the Government of Samoa and the Pacific Community