People along a coastal area in Thanh Hoa central province said they will better prevent their family, their school and their village from natural disasters and other impacts of climate change after they participated in competitions which were held on March 21-27.

“Through the contest, I know more about disaster risk reduction. My family and I won’t make light of a disaster when it occurs,” said Huong, a woman in Quang Loi commune, Quang Xuong district.

“We hope we can protect our family and our village more effectively as the competition helped us raise our awareness about disaster risk prevention and climate change adaptation,” said Tran Nhan Tam, a man from Quang Nham commune, Quang Xuong district. “I wrote a poem about disaster risk reduction so other participants can easily remember the topic easily.”

Meanwhile, Le Thi Lien, a teacher from Quang Loc Primary School, said she and her student have an initiative after the competitions which were organised by World Vision and local authorities. “We will integrate the knowledge on our extra-curricular activities at school,” she released.

The competitions, which were prepared from February, aimed at raising local awareness about community-base disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, promoting local communities’ initiatives on the topics and encouraging local people’s active participation in World Vision’s activities. The events were attended by nearly 650 local people at three communities in Quang Xuong district.

The contests are among activities under World Vision-implemented Coastal Areas of Thanh Hoa province Resilient to Natural Disasters (CATREND) project. The CATREND project, which lasts from October 2011 till September 2014, focuses on helping communities in coastal and estuary areas in Hoang Hoa and Quang Xuong districts to reduce vulnerability and adverse socio-economic impacts of natural disasters by linking disaster preparedness with mitigation and climate change adaptation measures in a comprehensive way.