Landslide Awareness Workshops, targeting officers in Aranayake Divisional Secretariate office and School Children, Aranayake under SATREP project

In a proactive effort to bolster disaster preparedness and community resilience, the National Building Research Organisation in collaboration with the Interanational Consortium on Landslides under SATREPS project activities organized a series of impactful awareness programs in Aranayake during late March 2024. These programs, held under the auspices of the SATREPS project activities, targeted both government officers and school children in the region, aiming to equip them with vital knowledge and skills to identify the risks associated landslides with the concept of town watching.

The initiatives commenced on March 26 at the Aranayake Divisional Secretariat office, where a comprehensive session was conducted with participating 39 number of government officers with the active participation of Mrs. Shamali Piyathissa, Divisional Secretariat (Aranayake DS office). The SATREPS Project introduction presentation was delivered by Dr Imaya Ariyarathna and that helped to familiarize all the participants with the ongoing and completed activities of the SATREPS project. Furthermore, the discussion session was carried out after the presentation and the one-day-ahead prediction of mountain rains and rain induced rapid and long travelling landslide (RRLL) occurrences timely to the last mile as augmented reality (AR) dioramas of the potential rains by prediction using Multi-Scale Simulator for the Geo-environment (MSSG) and RRLLs with a background map displayed and discussed clearly. The workshop was wrapped up with the group activity of suggestions for the AR software and this was successfully carried out with the four groups and their suggestions were presented at the end of the workshop.

Figures : Photographs of, programs held on 26^th March at Aranayake Divisional Secretariat office

Figure : Officers, from NBRO head office, LRRMD & Kegalle District Ofifice and ICL Japan experts, participated for the program with ICL tresure, Prof. Jagath Gunathilake and Disaster relief officer, Aranayake DS

Building on the success of the initial session, interactive workshops were subsequently held at Hathgampola Primary School and Secondary School on March 27 and 28, with the participatipnts of Grade 5 and 10, respectively. The 60 participants participated in the primary school workshop and the 41 participants were in the secondary school workshop. The workshop was chaired by Dr. Imaya Ariyarathne Mr. Priyantha Bandara and Ms. Tania Munasinghe. The training programme of the town watching for teachers was firstly carried out. The introductory session and the Roleplay of the Aranayake landslides were presented to the students with the help of the ICL SATREPS Officers from Japan, Dr. Imaya Ariyarathne and Ms. Tania Munasinghe. The Town-watching field activities were carried out with the participation of four groups of students and teachers and this vital tool allowed students and teachers to identify the risk areas related to the landslides in their surrounding areas and the risk area map from the fieldwork was created and presented by the four groups at the end of the workshop. The participation certificates were given to every student who participated in the workshop. This workshop gave the excellent opportunity to engage master trainers (teachers) in educating pupils and coaching new trainers who are less experienced with disaster risk reduction education.

The programs garnered enthusiastic participation from both officers and students, reflecting the community's proactive stance towards disaster risk reduction. Attendees expressed their appreciation for the invaluable insights gained and commended the SATREPS project for its proactive approach to community empowerment.