Vishal lives in Central Kolkata, one of the busiest places in the city. He is studying in the 9th standard and walks to school. “We have lots of traffic here and it is a big problem for students. We don’t have proper footpaths because they are occupied by food stalls eaving very little space to walk. It creates a huge problem. This is a commercial area. We don’t have any particular place for play.

Few years back, a child was involved in an accident while playing on the street,” says Vishal. In circumstances like these, it  is  important  to  build  resilience  of  children  and  youth  in  the  communities we serve  and  one  way  to  do  is  through  school  safety.  World  Vision  India  has  worked  towards  capacity  building  initiative  on  Disaster  Risk  Reduction  and  School  Safety  for the last 2 years in communities like Vishal’s.

In Kolkata City, World Vision India was able to train about 205 teachers in 23 schools. More than 3400 students have benefited because of the initiative.

Through Comprehensive School Safety Framework (CSSF), World Vision India has reached around 26,287 school children in 748 schools on preparedness in 10 States. Over 1330 teachers and 150 non-teaching staff were trained on school safety. Through 163 mock drills conducted in schools 34387 school children were trained.

“There have been two trainings at school onschool safety and two trainings in the community as well. We have been taught what to do in times of disaster like how one must save oneself, help other family members and even community members,” says Riya, a class 12 student in Central Kolkata.