The oral histories provide the basis for the tabletop game. It is aimed at children but we hope it will also be played with adults, especially grandparents. The game asks players to answer questions about disaster preparedness specific to Talcahuano and drawn from the stories of the older people. For example, one questions asks:

Maria was born in 1950. She went back to secondary school to finish her education when she was more than 50 years old. During the 2010 earthquake, Maria didn’t have any food but she had flour. What was she able to do? (* is the correct answer)

1. Combine ingredients with a neighbour to make bread and share with other neighbours (*)
2. Keep it in secret so no one would steal it  
3. Nothing 

The game showcases Talcahuano, with the design based on a map of the city. Several of the questions ask about local disaster risks and resources. 

We worked with a comic workshop organised by the department for children at the municipality of Talcahuano. A group of children had already participated in 2 other workshops drawing comics. We joined the third workshop and proposed the theme of disaster preparedness. Children learned about DRR, heard from some of the older people from the project, and let their imagination run wild with their drawings. The result is a wonderfully creative and educational comic book on disaster risk reduction, communicated in the voice of children. You can download the comic book here. 

The older people’s oral histories have been beautifully illustrated by designer Seba Palma. Each person’s portrait is accompanied by the drawings that the children did of their stories in the workshop. You can download the book here. 

“Voices of Resilience” is a 40-minute documentary that showcases the oral life histories and the intergenerational work at the heart of this project. The documentary can also be used for educational purposes, such as to show some of the stories to students in a lesson on disasters or local history. 

You can find a trailer for the documentary here and the full documentary here (with English subtitles). 

We will produce curricular material for primary schools in Talcahuano. The aims of the lesson plans will be to make disaster risk reduction and resilience easy to teach within existing primary school curricula. We will communicate local older people’ stories of disaster and resilience so that children learn how the resources for disaster survival and preparedness are already around them, among their elders and families. The lessons will also link the stories of disaster survival with stories of resilience in life. Students will also have tasks where they have to speak with the older members of their family and neighbours to learn about local stories of disaster and resilience. 

We have a toolkit for other researchers and practitioners who are interested in the use of oral and life histories in disaster research, and/or in an intergenerational approach to disaster preparedness. The project has had to contend with pandemic restrictions in terms of time and space. Thus, the toolkit is designed to be simple and easy to use. Even if you do not have the funds or time to carry out the ideal project, our toolkit will provide basic tips and ideas that can still have immense impact on the communities with whom you work. 

Check it out here: Methodological Guide for Voices of Resilience

The project has also changed how local educators in Talcahuano teach about disasters to students. A primary school teacher, who used our products such as the tabletop game and illustrated book of life histories, said:

‘Games help us communicate these lessons [about disaster preparedness] in a way that’s distinct and engaging, and children always learn much better with playful methods like games… It’s a good thing what you did and gave us’. Magaly Gómez Parra, 5 January 2026

Another teacher commented: 

‘Voices of Resilience added something new to the work of disaster education, which is the part of emotions. For me, the most important thing is the emotions that the project created’. Sara Rebollado, 9 January 2026 

Teaching difficult topics such as disasters can be challenging for educators. The materials from the project helped them communicate to children important knowledge as well as emotional aspects of disasters, without making it traumatic.

Voices of Resilience has also changed the way that disaster practitioners and researchers approach their work. As Boris commented:

‘The fact that I was involved so profoundly in the construction of this project, from the design to the revision of the final documentary, meant that I could be part of its modifications too, ending up with a much broader set of results than we had anticipated. We started planning to obtain lessons from disasters for future generations, but we ended up with life lessons that can appeal to all people. It was an important jump that changed how I understood the definition of resilience’. Boris Sáez Arévalo, 12 January 2026.

This shift in thinking has led Boris to implement further educational interventions in local primary schools and to be able to collaborate with other municipal departments, beyond the areas of disaster management and security. The realms in which his work is relevant has expanded.

The project’s methodology is also being replicated elsewhere. For instance, the 1985+40 project within the Seismic Risk Program (Programa Riesgo Sísmico) at the University of Chile contains a set of activities carried out in 2025 centred around intergenerational dialogue based on memories and life history interviews with older people. One of the project’s researchers helped with Voices of Resilience when she was an undergraduate student, and this experience inspired her current work.

‘One of our activities has been the intergenerational encounters between students in the town of Pudahuel and older people, which we organised with the municipality, the Directorate of Disaster Risk Management. And, well, this activity was very much inspired by Voices of Resilience’. Josefina Carrasco Atenas, 15 January 2026.

Their project activities can be found here. 

Disaster practitioners at the municipality of Pudahuel have also taken inspiration from Voices of Resilience. One of the staff members also participated in our project when she was an MA student and has used the experience to create a documentary around life histories of disaster in Pudahuel.

‘The project for me marked a before and after, as a professional… It invited older people to participate, to make them see, “my story is important, my knowledge is important,” and also to offer a space for students with a methodology that allows them to learn about disasters in a way that’s closer to them. The project challenged educational methodologies in Chile, which tend to be very didactic, but Voices of Resilience invites students to actively articulate what they want, it empowers them in their learning’. Camila Valdivia Gutiérrez, 16 January 2026

Their documentary is titled ‘Between Overflowing Waters: Women Who Resist (Pudahuel, Chile)’ and can be found here.