Children’s Workshop

We worked with a core group of 20 children between the ages of 11 and 13 from 6 primary schools in Talcahuano.

We first conducted individual interviews with each of the children, asking them what they liked to do in their free time, what their favourite games were, and what their family life was like. We asked them to draw their answers.

Interviewing a student, 13 years old, about his hobbies and family.

Based on these interviews, we conducted a workshop with all the children to introduce the topic of disaster preparedness education, explore what they might find fun, and investigate what worries and resilience skills they already have. Drawing on the disaster preparedness work that the municipality of Talcahuano already does with schools since 2014, we taught them techniques of survival and mutual help, such as how to use a blanket as a stretcher.

Boris Sáez, co-lead of the project, teaching children how to use a blanket to carry an injured ‘person’ in a disaster.

The most moving part of the workshop was the moment when we asked the children to write down their worries on a piece of paper (anonymously). They went around offering advice to each other. The activity revealed, first, that children have serious concerns and struggles, but, second, that they also have the ability for mutual support. One student wrote his worry:

‘That I will lose my friend’.

To this anonymous concern, other students gave advice, such as how important it is to find friends who value you for who you are.

This is only a small instance but this capacity to support each other is something to encourage as an essential part of disaster and life resilience.

Children’s workshop worries: ‘My only fear is loneliness, or feeling alone’, ‘Lose my friend’, ‘My grades worry me’.