The cost of safer schools, quake simulators on the road, disaster fun and games

The U.N. has launched a campaign to reduce the number of children killed in disasters when their schools collapse on them. But many of the countries being urged to build safer schools are pretty strapped for cash. So, how much exactly is this all going to cost them? Well, it varies from place to place but in general safety features appear to add about 10 percent to the cost of the building.

Here are some figures for India provided by SEEDS India which has been doing work in Gujarat where an earthquake killed 20,000 people in 1991.

A small primary school building of 1000 square feet (304.8 square metres), incorporating commonly required earthquake and cyclone resistant features, would cost about Rs 325,000 or $7,200, compared to $6,650 without.

Retrofitting such a building if it were in poor condition would cost about $1,100 (15 percent of the total cost of the building).

Retrofitting a similar school in reasonable condition would cost $679 (10 percent).

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The campaign is also pushing governments to include disaster prevention in the curriculum. Sounds a bit dry doesn't it? Indeed, possibly the sort of class a bored teenager might bunk off. But the United Nations has a cunning scheme up its sleeve - it's creating a video game.

The game to launch in October is aimed at teaching 12 to 18-year-olds about how to protect themselves by involving players in simulated disaster situations - at least that's what we understand at this stage. If this sounds familiar you'd be right. Last year the World Food Programme produced a downloadable game where the player has to deal with a hunger crisis on the fictional Indian Ocean island of Sheylan. And if the WFP's experience is anything to go by the new U.N. game could be a surprise hit. The WFP's game Food Force has already acquired nearly 4 million players in nearly 200 countries. No other details on the new game yet, but we'll keep you posted.

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The Japanese are already a step ahead when it comes to using technology to teach children about disaster prevention. Quake drills are part of Japanese school culture, but alongside the more conventional exercises students now get the chance to practise in a quake simulator mounted on a truck. Inside it looks like a normal room in a house - a living room with sofa, chairs and table or a kitchen. But then the room starts shaking. And boy can it shake.

Remi Takaze, a 16-year-old student from Tokyo, told the launch of the U.N.'s Disaster Prevention Begins at School campaign, that the simulators had become very sophisticated and could now replicate real quakes such as Kobe. (Here's more on the U.N.'s drive to cut child deaths in disasters.)

The trucks, which tour around schools, alert children to potential hazards by showing them how objects will move and fall over and how they themselves will lose their balance. This is obviously not an option for many quake-prone countries, not least because of the cost, but we're quite taken with the idea.

Remi surprised many students at the campaign launch in Paris when she told them Japan had earthquakes every day. You couldn't necessarily feel many of them, she said, but even so she thought there was on average a biggish one every month.

Logham Salamatian, a 12-year-old from Iran, another quake-prone country, seemed mighty impressed with Japan's work on disaster prevention. "I knew Japan was very well equipped. But I didn't know they were that well equipped!" he exclaimed after listening to Remi run through the extensive exercises and drills that are part of school life in her country.

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Those who followed the tsunami news in detail are probably familiar with the story of Tilly Smith, the British schoolgirl holidaying in Thailand who saved scores of people thanks to a geography lesson. To refresh your memories, Tilly raised the alarm after she noticed that the sea was behaving in exactly the same way as she had seen in a video on tsunamis shown at her school two weeks previously. Here's a National Geographic piece on her story.

What wasn't mentioned in reports was a detail about how her warning was spread to others on the beach. Tilly told us that she and her dad first informed a hotel security guard. The guard didn't react instantly which is not that surprising. Given the rarity of the phenomenon he may well not have known what a tsunami was, but standing right next to him was a Japanese chef who immediately recognised the word - tsunami comes from the Japanese tsu (harbour) and nami (wave) - and agreed Tilly's fears could well be right.

He may not know it, but that chef probably played a role in saving many lives that day.

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I really like David Beckham's fabulous endorsement for Soccer Aid, UNICEF's campaign to raise money for children around the world. The England captain has taken time out of his busy schedule to make a short film about the dangers of malaria.

"This is the Bernabeu stadium. 80,000 people come here to watch Real Madrid play every week. That's a lot of people," Beckham tells us.

"Imagine this stadium full of children. Then imagine all of them dying in just over four weeks. Sadly 80,000 people is around the same number of people, mainly young kids, who die every single month from malaria," he adds.

He goes on to say that malaria kills more children than any other disease or disaster, around a million a year. Their deaths can be prevented with mosquito nets, he says. Then he gives a number to call to donate money.

Hot stuff, I say. And one more thing -- does he look cute in this endorsement shot or what!?

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So-called blood diamonds, or diamonds used to fund wars and violence, often fall out of the public eye. Now Global Witness says is bringing up the topic again, saying the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo is only paying lip service to the issue and calls for the establishment of adequate controls over the diamond sector.

The organisation, which looks at the links between the exploitation of natural resources and the funding of conflict, also says donors must press the issue.

Congo's official diamond exports have grown a lot in recent years, largely because the country is participating in the Kimberley Process, an international mechanism designed to prevent the trade in conflict diamonds, Global Witness says. But the country still doesn't have strong enough controls to track all diamonds from the mine to the point of exports. And so diamonds are still being smuggled in and out of the country.

Indeed, diamonds, the Congo's most valuable export, are one of several resources that have contributed to armed conflict there from 1998 to 2003. Although the violence has decreased in the Congo since peace agreements signed in 2002, fighting between the national army and various rebel groups has continued in parts of the country, particularly in the east. Some of this fighting has centred around diamond mines and other areas rich in minerals and natural resources.

This is serious stuff. More than a thousand people die every day in Congo, site of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Emma Batha and F. Brinley Bruton