United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Calendar 2008

Make Hospitals Safe From Disasters
Reduce risk, protect health facilities, save lives

When disasters strike, aid agencies, communities, the media, and governments focus immediately on the victims. But if our focus on victims is to have real meaning, we must prioritize a deeper understanding and support of medical care.

The importance of hospitals and all types of health facilities extends beyond the direct life-saving role they play. They are also powerful symbols of social progress and a prerequisite for social stability and economic development. Those who are injured need urgent medical attention, but those who escape injury have not escaped the long-term need for medical care and public health after the disaster is forgotten.

Damage to health systems affects every part of society and nations as a whole. As such, everyone should be made aware of the importance of the issue and be committed to helping ensure that hospitals and health facilities are resistant to natural hazards.

The difference in expense between building a safe and an unsafe hospital can be negligible. But that tiny investment can be the difference between life and death, or between a community’s impoverishment and its sustainable development.

Please click here to view the UNISDR Calendar 2008

For further information contact:

Anna Bobcow-Pica
Entico Corporation Ltd
Tel +44 20 7799 2222
Mail: abp@entico.com
Fax +44 20 7340 2868

United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Calendar 2007

Disaster Reduction Begins At School Calendar 2007

Recent disasters caused by natural hazards show that a pro-active approach to informing, motivating and involving people in disaster risk reduction saves lives and reduces disaster related losses. Tilly Smith, the young British school girl who had leant to recognise the first signs of the tsunami in her geography class, warned people to flee from the beach on Phuket Island when the Indian Ocean tsunami struck on 26 December 2004. She helped to save many lives. Tilly Smith’s story shows that education can make a difference between life and death.

The Disaster Risk Reduction Begins At School Campaign is an important UNISDR communication initiative that will cover the next two years. UNISDR’s aim is to work in close cooperation with partners inside and outside the UN system to develop a disaster awareness education campaign, focused at the primary and secondary school levels that countries can adopt and adapt according to their specific disaster related needs and concerns. The Campaign also provides an opportunity to give many existing disaster awareness education and safer school facilities a priority at the national, local and community level.

Please click here to view the UNISDR Calendar 2007

For further information contact:

Anna Bobcow-Pica
Entico Corporation Ltd
Tel +44 20 7799 2222
Mail: abp@entico.com
Fax +44 20 7340 2868

United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Calendar 2006

Vulnerability and Early Warning in Disaster Reduction

Vulnerability to natural hazards exists all over the world: in addition to tsunamis, which were tragically highlighted at the end of 2004, many forms of natural hazards pose a threat to life all over the globe.

In this context, the secretariat of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction is preparing an important awareness raising campaign to highlight issues related to vulnerability and possibilities for early warning that can reduce risk.

Together with Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the photographer who launched the famous 'Earth from the Air' series, the UN/ISDR secretariat produced a world-class calendar for 2006. This calendar and an associated exhibition for the artwork involved was launched at a high profile event on the International Day for Disaster Reduction, 12 October 2005, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva , Switzerland .

Please click here to view the UNISDR Calendar 2006

For further information contact:

Anna Bobcow-Pica
Entico Corporation Ltd
Tel +44 20 7799 2222
Mail: abp@entico.com
Fax +44 20 7340 2868

UNISDR Preparing for Disaster Calendar
Kobe conference 2005

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The World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) took place on 18-22 January, 2005,
Kobe, Japan.

The theme of the World Disaster Reduction Campaign was“Learning from today’s disasters for tomorrow’s hazards” which coincided with the launch of the International Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014).

UN/ISDR prepared an important awareness campaign in the form of a major international art competition involving children up to the age of sixteen designed to highlight the importance learning about the risks and vulnerabilities associated with hazards at an early age.

A gallery of forty two winning entries was exhibited at WCDR and of the twelve winning entries were used as illustrations for each month of ten thousand A3 2005 calendars that are being distributed for WCDR.

Twelve organisations sponsored both the gallery of winning entries and the calendar and played a high-profile role in being seen to support the efforts of UN/ISDR and this important initiative.
For online information click here | For gallery of winning entries click here