This proves that education is vitally important for young people, so that they can educate the people around them on the threat of natural disasters and pass on the message to future generation. Since the Tsunami struck in December of 2004 the Irish Red Cross has played an important part in the reconstruction of communities in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Indonesia, focussing extensively on the rebuilding of schools and educating communities on how they can prepare themselves should another disaster strike. All schools and other buildings funded by the Irish Red Cross must meet the highest standards on earthquake protection and are designed to withstand and not collapse under strong earthquake tremors thereby preventing tragedy in future.

In Sri Lanka, the Irish Red Cross has built a new school for 400 students in Kalutara on the west coast, built a Pre School for 30 children in Ampara in the south east district, refurbished 5 other schools and supplied them with schoolbooks and an specially developed IT and computer skills programme and built 20 temporary classrooms for a school of 3,500 students in Panadura. All of these new facilities will help educate the next generation and allow students whose studies were interrupted by the disaster to resume their education with new hope.

As the 2009 World Disasters Report highlights, being educated enough to know what the early warning signs are before a disaster strikes, really is the most successful way of protecting vulnerable communities by minimising destruction of their livelihoods and loss of life. "Without education people are powerless; with education, as can be seen here, they are very powerful in terms of directing their own lives."

Communication in Rural Areas

Understanding the most effective way of communicating information on disasters can be one of the most significant challenges for communities and those providing humanitarian relief in the wake of a disaster. As shown in the World Disasters Report "In many developing countries, traditional broadcast radio remains the most widely use channel for disseminating disaster warnings. Warning messages that are broadcast on radio can quickly reach isolated rural communities where no other form of communication is available."

In Indonesia the Irish Red Cross has used the medium of radio to launch its Community Outreach Programme (COP) which provides an opportunity for those who were most affected by the Tsunami to have a voice and to influence the response of donors to meeting their particular needs as their homes and livelihoods are being rebuilt. The Irish Red Cross Community Outreach Programme is the only project of its kind being run by the Red Cross Red Crescent movement and has been widely praised for giving Tsunami survivors the power to shape reconstruction programmes.

The Irish Red Cross COP service has supported many people whose lives were destroyed by the Tsunami and has also helped educate people on how and why natural disasters happen, while showing them that they can help prevent loss of life and livelihoods in the future by being prepared and educated.

Because every country and community affected by disaster is different, it is important to always think of new and creative ways to communicate to them, while the Irish Red Cross established the Community Outreach Programme in Indonesia, people in Malawi have come up with a unique way of reaching out to farmers and educating them about climate change. A 12 minute participatory video was produced for subsistence farmers and their communities, showing them six simple yet innovative measures to help deal with increasing flood and drought risks. This video was created in an effort to change the mindsets and perceptions of people in these small communities in Malawi who "thought [the climate change] was God punishing us, or that the ancestors were angry... and we can’t do much about it. But now in the film I see that white women in the other end of the world have the same problem we have! So maybe it is true that the global rainfall is changing, and so if I can do something about it, I will."

These measures will allow farmers to prepare themselves and their livelihoods in the future by monitoring their surroundings to detect early warning signs of an impending disaster, ranging from simple observations such as the behaviour of ants, who build their homes underground and leave their nests when the water underground is rising, providing an excellent way for farmers to predict floods.

Niger

The Irish Red Cross has been very active in Niger over the past few years with operations including disaster response and preparedness, and protection of livelihoods.

As part of the early warning/effective communication strategy of the Irish Red Cross we installed six HF radio communication systems across very vast stretches of Agadez, in northern Niger.

These HF radio systems were installed in Niger Red Cross sub branches and are the only means of communicating from these areas as mobile phone coverage does not extend to such places and very few people actually have mobile phones. The distances between villages, towns and communities in the Agadez region are vast and it can take days and days driving to get from one location to another. Many of Agadez’s communities are living in some of the remotest places on the planet. The HF radio system is simple to use and is extremely effective in communicating across hundreds and thousands of kilometers and information, advice and guidance can be passed instantly.

In 2006 the Irish Red Cross, with the help of Irish Aid, funded an Irish Red Cross programme to help equip Red Cross members with training and supplies so that communities across the Agadez region of Niger would be in a better position to deal with crises and natural disasters in their own areas. This training and awareness-raising was in response to severe flooding in August which forced thousands of people to flee their homes and livelihoods.

Food shortages were also a major concern in Niger in 2008, leading to severe malnutrition in many communities, however many of the signals for these problems were evident from as far back as 2004 and 2005 and were not responded to sufficiently due to poor communication, as outlined in the 2009 World Disasters Report; "If the test of good humanitarian action is that it should be timely, proportionate, appropriate and effective, the response to the crisis in Niger has to date arguably failed on all counts." Therefore, the Niger food crisis is a prime example of the importance of Early Warning, Early Action and can be used as a lesson for future crises.

Close monitoring is now a major priority in Niger, while several analyses of the early warning systems which failed at the time also took place. Additionally, the Irish Red Cross continues to work with the Niger Red Cross Society (NRCS) in support of a 5 year Africa Food Security Strategy established by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which aims to tackle and address food shortages at a community level.