In 1999, Alam Santi co-founder, Petra Schneider, also founded IDEP Foundation, a local NGO which responded to over 30 major disasters in Indonesia.
While at IDEP Foundation for over two decades, Petra and other Alam Santi co-founder, Gede Sugiartha, lead the design and production of a huge array of community education handbooks, comic books, and films designed for raising awareness of the early signs of natural disasters and the correct responses to them.
In 2006, IDEP collaborated with Trocaire, JRS, No Strings and Cordaid, resulting in the creation of films of multiple disaster scenarios which became commonly used in schools and community meetings throughout Indonesia. Kathy Mullen, one-time principal performer with the popular puppet based TV show The Muppet Show, supported the program’s success as chief designer and creator of the films.
The Importance of Early Sign Response
With the target audience focused on children, the aim of the production was to teach them the common signs of eminent natural disasters and the correct response to them. This helps empower local communities to be able to correctly respond if and when these tragedies occur. As a result of this work, a large number of casualties have been avoided.
The series of five short films covers: earthquake, tsunami, volcano, flood & landslide and social conflict resolution. The heroine of the films, ‘little girl’, demonstrates appropriate behaviour whilst also encouraging a sense of responsibility and empowerment in young children. Meanwhile 'Badu' always does everything wrong, bringing humour into the story while providing key information about disaster prevention tactics. The films are available in four languages: Indonesian, Tetun, Acehnese and English.
The message quickly spread amongst families, communities and villages.
The Regenerative Nature of This Educational Material
Head facilitators were taught how to use puppets to stimulate discussion and reinforce these messages using songs, puzzles and games, often with children and also with adult groups.
This is a simple way to spread correct disaster response, since the educational method is easily understood by everyone. Building up the capacity for communities to respond to disasters before they hit is a great way to reduce the need of intervening after disasters occur.
A Successful Educational Goal
When disasters hit remote communities is when outside help is needed most, but it can be slow to reach them. Educating the entire community in effective preventative measures can save many lives when disasters occur.
These educational films were successfully distributed to schools and communities in several high-risk areas of Indonesia, and have been screened for over 10,000 school children, and a further 5,000 people during other public showings.
Contact us if you have a topic / project or program that you want to share to the public of Indonesia in a reliable and effective way.
Alam Santi offers campaign consultancy, as well as high impact educational media production. Our team has years of expertise on media production, message profiling and media outreach, your message will reach far and wide.