Disaster Risk Reduction Education with Magical Muppets
Updated: Sep 17
In 1999, Alam Santi co-founder Petra Schneider founded IDEP Foundation, a local NGO that has responded to more than 30 major disasters in Indonesia.
While at IDEP for over two decades, Petra and fellow Alam Santi co-founder Gede Sugiartha led the design and production of community education handbooks, comic books and films built to raise awareness of the early warning signs of natural disasters and the best ways to respond.
In 2006, IDEP collaborated with Trocaire, Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), No Strings and Cordaid to produce a series of films covering multiple disaster scenarios. Kathy Mullen, a former principal performer with The Muppet Show, served as the chief designer and creator of the films. They have since become the standard material for disaster risk reduction education in schools and community meetings across Indonesia.
Teaching early sign response
We built these films primarily for children, teaching them how to recognise the common early warning signs of natural disasters and how to respond correctly. This media has equipped local communities to act quickly when disaster strikes, and has likely helped avoid a significant number of casualties over the years.
The series comprises five short films covering earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, floods and landslides, and social conflict transformation. The heroine, "Little Girl," models the right behaviour and builds a sense of responsibility in young viewers. "Badu," her counterpart, gets everything wrong, bringing humour to the material while reinforcing key disaster prevention messages. The films are available in Indonesian, Tetun, Acehnese and English, and spread quickly through families, communities and villages.
Built to be passed on
To complement the films, we trained facilitators to use puppets to stimulate discussion and reinforce the films' messages through songs, puzzles and games with both children and adult groups. The approach is deliberately simple, designed so that anyone can understand and share information about the best responses to disasters. This strategy builds community capacity to respond before a disaster hits, rather than relying solely on outside intervention afterwards.
Reach
The films were distributed to schools and communities in several high-risk regions of Indonesia, and screened for over 10,000 school children and a further 5,000 people at public events.
Remote communities are often hardest to reach when disaster strikes, and outside help can be slow to arrive. Preparing entire communities in advance saves lives when it matters most.
Alam Santi offers campaign consultancy and educational media production, with decades of experience in message design and community outreach.
Contact us if you have a topic, project or programme that you want to bring to communities across Indonesia or the Asia-Pacific region in a way that's reliable, memorable and built to last.