Zebila (UE), March 26, GNA- ActionAid International Ghana (AAIG), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) was to implement a five-year Disaster Risk Reduction Project in disaster prone Schools in the Upper East Region.

The project would also be replicated in other disaster prone schools in the country in due course.

The Senior Programme Officer of AAIG, Mr. Alhassan Sulemana, announced this at the weekend during Participatory Vulnerability Analysis (PVA) on Disaster Risk Reduction workshop at Zebila in the Bawku West District in the Upper East Region. Mr. Sulemana explained that the purpose of the project was to demonstrate how schools could be safer and become the centre of awareness for action on local hazards and risk reduction. The project would target 20 disaster prone schools and the communities surrounding them.

Mr. Sulemana said that apart from the project contributing to reduction in vulnerability in the 20 target schools, it was also envisaged that the experience to be gained in the implementation stages, would be replicated in other schools to help institutionalise disaster reduction in educational institutions in the country.

Mr. Sulemana noted that Ghana was among the signatories to the 2005 World Conference on Disaster Reduction, which resulted in the preparation of the Hyogo Framework for Action in Japan.

He said although Ghana had already started with plans towards the achievement of the objectives of the Hyogo Framework for Action, it still needed the support of NGOs and community based organisations to complement its efforts to achieving its entire objectives. It was against this background that AAIG had come up with the five-year Disaster Risk Reduction project for schools in Ghana, of which the Upper East Region had been selected as a pilot area, the Programme Officer said.

The Bawku West District Chief Executive, Mr. Moses Appiah, in a speech read for him, commended ActionAid for the programme and noted that when properly implemented it could also be replicated in other government institutions in areas prone to disasters.

The workshop, which attracted about 50 participants from communities and government institutions, was funded by AAIG and co-facilitated by Centre for Community Development Initiatives (CODI), a Non-Governmental Organisation based in Bawku.