Onagawa evacuation centre management training roleplay in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Yayoi Kitamura
Specially Appointed Professor
Nagano University of Health and Medicine

In this article, I will introduce inclusive disaster risk reduction training carried out in Thailand, with a focus on the Onnagawa evacuation centre management training (hereinafter, “evacuation centre management training”) roleplay. This evacuation centre management training was developed at Miyagi Prefectural Onnagawa Special Needs High School; participants play the roles of evacuation centre management staff and evacuees according to the information on the cards which they receive[1]. Inspired by the HUG evacuation centre management game developed in Shizuoka Prefecture, it was changed from a card game to a roleplaying game in order to enable students with intellectual disabilities to carry it out. The school’s comprehensive disaster risk reduction training, with this training at its core, won the Grand Prize at the Bosai Koshien (“Disaster Risk Reduction Schools Tournament”) in FY 2020[2].

Background

Local disaster risk reduction trainings are not often held in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. This is because in Thailand, for example, it is taken for granted that flooding occurs in the rainy season and that daily life changes as a result. However, due to an increase in precipitation caused by climate change, interest in disaster countermeasures is growing. Disaster preparation is essential in particular for people with disabilities, who suffer major damage. Because of this, the Thai Ministry of Education began its “Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction Project at Special Needs Schools” in 2016. This was prompted by the participation of Apple Suwannawut, a totally blind person working for the Thai Ministry of Education, in the third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (2015, Sendai), through the offices of Hiroshi Kawamura (Assistive Technology Development Organization, an NPO), whom she had met while a trainee on the “Duskin Leadership Training in Japan” programme. This project was planned by the Thai Ministry of Education using the knowledge gained through her engagement with the process of adopting the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and with recording the session on inclusive disaster risk reduction.

The project consisted of 1) the creation of an inclusive disaster risk reduction manual and guidelines in order to create school evacuation plans, 2) the holding of training on inclusive disaster risk reduction by lecturers invited from Japan, 3) the provision of funding for all 176 special needs schools to carry out inclusive disaster risk reduction activities, and 4) the consolidation of activities to implement the evacuation plans at each school.

As a result of this project, understanding of inclusive disaster risk reduction spread within special needs schools in Thailand, and evacuation exercises became a reality. It is hoped that the evacuation exercise techniques and inclusive disaster risk reduction manuals developed by special needs schools will spread to regular schools which have not yet tackled evacuation exercises or the creation of evacuation plans, as well as to local communities. The Ministry of Education has made a template for these manuals available on its website, and information about measures to tackle COVID-19 was added in 2020.

In November 2017, the author introduced accessible disaster risk reduction teaching materials and the idea of individual evacuation plans as examples of Japanese field research, and carried out a modified version of the evacuation centre management game (Shizuoka Prefecture), in the “Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction” academic workshop which took place during the 3rd Asia Pacific Regional Conference of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities, held in Bangkok, and on an inclusive disaster risk reduction training organized by the Ministry of Education for staff in charge of disaster risk reduction at special needs schools. In addition, Takako Miura, facility director of Ailinkan, introduced support by the Kumamoto Prefectural Council of Facilities for Children and People with Physical Disabilities, and Dr. Chie Yoshimura introduced evacuation centre management at Kumamoto Gakuen University, as positive examples of support for people with disabilities during the Kumamoto Earthquake (see endnote i). These lectures were given in English, with consecutive interpreting into Thai by staff of the Thai Ministry of Education.

The second round of this same training was held in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, in February 2019. The author explained the participation of people with disabilities in local disaster risk prevention training and how to prepare individual evacuation plans. In addition, three positive case studies of inclusive disaster risk prevention in Japan were introduced (see endnote i). The first case study was Beppu City, an example of the implementation of public-private cooperation (Junko Murano, Beppu City Hall). The second case study was the experience of managing welfare evacuation centres after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Kumamoto Earthquake (Yasutaka Saito, Ishinomaki Shoshinkai). The third case study was the evacuation centre management training roleplay introduced below (Hideyuki Mori, Onnagawa Senior High School).

How the evacuation centre management training was carried out

The examples of the cards distributed to the training participants are shown in Fig. 1. The participants were divided into 30 evacuees and 6 management staff, and the number of events was set at 10 (Table 1). The facilitator spoke in Japanese, and this was interpreted consecutively into Thai by an interpreter. The cards were translated into Thai in advance, with the Japanese written alongside. The surnames on the cards were written in the Roman alphabet used by English, the shared language, and common, easily-pronounced Western, Chinese, and Japanese names were chosen. This was because names in the native language would be difficult for each other to pronounce and to remember. Among the contents of the cards, the number of children in a household, whether or not they were living with grandparents, and the types of assistive devices owned by the people with disabilities were modified, in consultation with the translator, to match the Thai reality.

Situation during implementation

The training took place without experiencing any language or cultural barriers thanks to the enthusiastic performances of the Thai teachers participating (Photos 2, 3). Participants gave their impressions eagerly, as shown in Fig. 2. In this way, it was demonstrated that the evacuation centre management training developed by students of Onnagawa Senior High School out of a wish to “make disaster risk reduction training a tradition at our school, which experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake” can also generate a high level of satisfaction overseas.

Table 1 Events used during the Thai roleplay

Event 1	Head of household (in his 40s), wife, child 1, child 2	“Please will you open the gymnasium for use as an evacuation centre?”
Event 2	Town Hall employees (five people)	“We will help to manage the evacuation centre!”
Event 3	Person from outside town, in their 40s, a foreign tourist who had come to the town	“I can't speak Thai.”
Event 4	Person from outside town, in their 50s, a salesman who had come to the town	“I want to return home today, but my car has been damaged. Isn’t there any way I can get home?” (Angry)
Event 5	Town resident, in their 40s	“I want to smoke! Is it OK to smoke over there?”
Event 6	Town resident, in their 40s	“The toilets aren’t flushing properly. I think they might be blocked...”
Event 7	Head of household (in his 30s), wife, child 1	“I want to join my family...”
Event 8	Town Hall employee	“Please make a list of the names of evacuees.”
Event 9	Town resident, in her 20s	“Is there a room where I can change my baby’s nappy and breastfeed?”
Event 10	Town Hall employee	“I’ve brought partitions. Where should I put them?”

Fig. 1 The cards used during the Thai roleplay

Fig.1 The cards

Photo 1 The participants playing evacuees crowding around the reception desk. The man at the front is asking where he can smoke.

Photo 2 After finishing the reception process, having decided where to put each family.

Fig. 2 Some of the reflections from the participants in the Thai roleplay

(Those playing evacuees)

I felt the need to decide on rules within the family at the start.
I need a card to show who I am.
I would like to divide up the inside of the evacuation centre and create a safe space.
By helping each other after evacuation, we can understand each other’s needs.
(Staff of an organisation supporting children) I felt that I would like to tackle this together with the children.

I was able to experience how hard it was both for those on the reception desk and for the disaster victims.
In addition to the information on the cards, if we could recreate the inadequacy of the environment, it might become more realistic.
Consideration is necessary for this training. When push comes to shove, you put yourself first.

(Those playing management staff)

The preparations before opening an evacuation centre were really hard. A plan is important.

[1] National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities. Disability-inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction: Japanese Experiences. Report for the WHO (Japanese translation).2021. http://www.rehab.go.jp/whoclbc/activity/

Translator’s note: the English-language report is available at http://www.rehab.go.jp/application/files/3416/2262/2942/all_Disability-inclusive_Disaster_risk_Reduction_Japanese_Experiences.pdf

[2] Mori, Hideyuki and Kitamura, Yayoi. First Time for a Special Needs School to Win the Grand Prize at the Bosai Kojien: Miyagi Prefectural Onnagawa Special Needs High School’s Initiatives for Comprehensive Disaster Risk Reduction Training. In “New Normalization” 41 (4), 14, 2021.