Earthquakes

In emergency situations, the rights of children and adolescents risk being violated, ignored, or underestimated due to the need to intervene quickly on aspects related to primary needs. Based on experience gained internationally and in national emergency contexts, Save the Children Italia offers practical recommendations to ensure safety, educational continuity, psychological support, and child participation, emphasizing respect for children’s rights and strengthening community resilience.

This manual represents a practical and concrete support to all operators working in emergency settings in carrying out educational activities with children and adolescents in emergency situations.

Due to its sudden nature, an emergency disrupts and significantly alters the daily life and linearity of educational interventions. It is therefore crucial to restore routine and the psycho-physical well-being of the children involved.

Feel Safe VR Experience is an immersive educational project by Save the Children Italia that uses virtual reality to teach children and adolescents how to respond safely to emergencies. Through interactive simulations of earthquakes, floods, and wildfires, participants develop practical safety skills, resilience, and awareness. The project emphasizes participation, inclusivity, and engagement to foster responsible young citizens.

The project consists of three structured workshops: Explore (building awareness of risk and resilience through storytelling and games), Experience (role-playing emergency scenarios to practice safe behaviors), and Participate (hands-on engagement via VR or the dynamic team game “Corri il Rischio”). The initiative equips children with practical skills for emergency preparedness and fosters collaboration, decision-making, and climate crisis awareness, positioning Feel Safe as a pioneering model for integrating technology and education in resilience-building.

COPE Disaster Champions provides free illustrated children’s books, educational jingles and a digital platform to teach disaster preparedness and risk awareness. Through storytelling, visuals and simple action-oriented messages, the initiative empowers children to understand risks and adopt safe behaviours before, during and after disasters.

Safecast designs and deploys open hardware and software tools that enable citizens and experts to collect, share and access high-quality environmental data. Originating from a post-disaster information gap, Safecast promotes transparency, public trust and evidence-based decision-making through open data and community-driven monitoring.

A qualitative study analysing how hill-based households in Napier could support tsunami evacuees after a major earthquake, focusing on social capital, preparedness, and informal hosting capacity.

The project consists of three structured workshops: Explore (building awareness of risk and resilience through storytelling and games), Experience (role-playing emergency scenarios to practice safe behaviors), and Participate (hands-on engagement via VR or the dynamic team game “Corri il Rischio”). The initiative equips children with practical skills for emergency preparedness and fosters collaboration, decision-making, and climate crisis awareness, positioning Feel Safe as a pioneering model for integrating technology and education in resilience-building.

Supporting communities and ecosystems in disaster recovery and resilience

Strategy aiming to strengthen disaster recovery planning