Project description

Title: Disaster Preparedness and Management/Psychosocial Care
Commissioned by: Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)
Country: Sri Lanka
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Education
Overall term: June 2005 to December 2008

Context

The tsunami had dramatic impacts on the educational situation of schoolchildren and youth in the affected regions. The Ministry of Education of Sri Lanka expressly requested the Federal Republic of Germany for support in disaster management and psychosocial counselling for schoolchildren, youth and teaching staff. There is a dire need for educational course offers especially tailored to deal with the catastrophe for war and tsunami traumatized children and youth. There is hardly any competent stakeholder for the so called crisis preventive reconstruction.

The peaceful coexistence of various ethnic groups remains a vision as long as the reconstruction is not secured and the deficiencies in the education sector are not remedied.

Objective

The schools’ teaching staff and the professional staff of the Ministry of Education are further qualified to handle disaster preparedness and management as well as psychosocial counselling of tsunami affected children and youth. The classroom performance of tsunami traumatized children is improved.

Approach

The project’s contributions include intensive policy advice and qualifying professionals and high government officials in disaster management, elaboration of curricula for children with disabilities and youth as well as psychosocial counselling designed to overcome traumatic experiences and improve of social integration.

After the acute phase of trauma counselling the main intervention areas of the project will shift to the general improvement of the quality of classroom lessons and curricula development on disaster preparedness and management.

The project is integrated into the so called sectorwide approach (SWAP) towards improved quality of education in Sri Lanka. Within the framework of this SWAP Approach the project closely coordinates with nationwide and regional projects of other donors such as the World Bank, UNICEF, Sida, DFID, ADB and JICA.

The project works in close cooperation with the GTZ supported project on Education for Social Cohesion. .

Results achieved so far

Since January 2005 comprehensive training measures for teachers and school principals were implemented. They now are back to their respective workplaces and professionally counsel more than 10 000 children and youth.

Further information

• Basic Education Sector Programme
  Internet page of a previous project
  www.besp.go2lk.com