Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) involves activities aimed at protecting communities from hazards and minimising their vulnerability to disaster risks. It moves beyond the traditional disaster management approach of simply focusing on response, rehabilitation and rebuilding after a disaster event.

For DRR projects to achieve meaningful and sustainable reduction in disaster risk, the whole community needs to be involved – government, academic institutions, private sector, civil society and community-based organizations, the general public- especially those most at risk.

Community Based Disaster Risk Management

Community Based Disaster Risk Management, also known as CBDRM, is a process of disaster risk management in which at-risk communities are actively engaged in efforts to reduce their vulnerabilities and enhance their capacities.

Our programmes are designed to encourage participation from the community and local government to identify, analyse, treat, monitor and evaluate the potential risks within their environment, thereby empowering them into implementation of solutions that they themselves have developed.

Currently, CBDRM projects are on-going in China, Maldives, Myanmar and Malaysia.

Local Partners

Having strong local community-based organisations is a key component of ensuring sustainable DRR projects. In addition to strengthening capacity of our partners in different countries, MERCY Malaysia is also undertaking DRR capacity enhancement workshops in Indonesia.

School Preparedness Programme

Among the crucial DRR programmes conducted by MERCY Malaysia is the School Preparedness Programme. The programme is designed to raise awareness amongst students of the hazards they face and to help schools to minimise the risks posed by natural disasters, such as the seasonal floods in many parts of Malaysia, or earthquakes in China. Schoolchildren are taught simple, hands-on activities to prepare them to take responsibility for their own safety in the event of an emergency.

Called the School Watching Workshop, the programme introduces a “Community-Based Hazard Mapping’’ tool to help school communities to identify hazards and risks in and around the schools and then devising solutions to make it a safer place.

MERCY Malaysia conducts Training of Trainers workshops with teachers and School Watching Workshops directly with students.

See where we have been for our workshops