OCD-NDRRMC NSED WEBINAR

S.O.S. Tips Infographics:

Strengthening ORDER in Schools

Abstract
Schools are powerful symbols of progress and development. Schools represent our children –
the nation’s hope for the future – and their education. In recent disasters in the Philippines,
many school buildings were damaged due to various natural hazards like earthquakes, floods,
landslides and typhoon causing a number of casualties. Creating “safe school” involves an
integrated strategy among the stakeholders. Aside from assuring that school buildings are safe
and sound during a hazardous event, a safe school must promote a culture of safety where
the students and teachers are aware of the risks to hazards and prepared to respond during
emergencies and emergencies. Hence, this presentation highlights the SOS Tips Infographics,
one of the components of the project on “Strengthening ORDER in Schools (S.O.S).” The
S.O.S. Project is part of the “Philippines Resilience of Schools to Multi Hazard” or PRISMH
project funded by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and has a component on the
development of materials for Organizational Resilience in Disasters & Emergency Response
(ORDER).

The SOS Tips Infographics aims to increase awareness of school children and teachers on
what to do before, during, and after a hazardous event such as earthquakes, strong winds,
typhoons and floods. The S.O.S. Tips infographics are of three modules: (a) S.O.S. Tips on
Emergency Evacuation, (b) S.O.S. Tips on Wind, Typhoon and Flood and (c) S.O.S. Tips on
Earthquakes.

The S.O.S. Tips on Emergency Evacuation emphasize that an evacuation site and evacuation
route are critical components in a school emergency and disaster preparedness plan. Hence,
this module provides simple tips on identifying the evacuation assembly area and/or sites and
evacuation routes based on hazards and simple rules during evacuation that students must
follow.

The S.O.S. Tips on Wind, Typhoon and Flood provide tips on what do during and after the
hazardous event whether inside the classroom or outside the school building. Similarly, the
S.O.S. Tips on Earthquakes also provide guidance to students on what to during an
earthquake if indoors or outdoors and what to do after the earthquake ground shaking.

The S.O.S. Tips Infographics are appropriate not only to school children in grade school or
high school but even to college students since the messages are general. The infographics
design is simple with meaningful cartoon images and catchy and readable texts. The
infographics can be adopted in the school curriculum as a teaching and learning material in
the subject on Disaster Readiness and Risk Reduction. The infographics are readily available
in the internet

ABOUT THE PRESENTOR

 Author/Presenter: Andres Winston C. Oreta, D. Eng.

 Affiliation: Professor, Disaster Resilience Unit, Center for Engineering & Sustainable
Development Research (CESDR), De La Salle University, Manila
 Contact: Email: andres.oreta@dlsu.edu.ph, andyoreta@yahoo.com
 Mobile: 0917-5202185

Andres Winston C. Oreta is a professor at the Department of Civil Engineering (Structural

Engineering Division) of De La Salle University (DLSU), Manila, Philippines. He is a member of
the Disaster Resilience Unit of DLSU Center for Engineering and Sustainable Development
Research (CESDR). He served as consultant for UNISDR for the development of the concept
and website for the “One Million Safe Schools and Hospitals Campaign.” His external research
projects include:
 “Localising Strategies for Making Cities Resilient to Disasters” with University of
Huddersfield,
 Philippines Resilience of Schools to Mulit-Hazards (PRISMH) and Cultural Heritage
Resilience and Sustainability to Multi-Hazards (CHeRiSH) with University College
London (UK).
He is a fellow of the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines (ASEP) and a
member of ASEP’s Disaster Mitigation Preparedness Response (DMPR) Committee. He has
published papers in the International Journal on Disaster Risk Reduction, ASCE Journal of
Structural Engineering, ASCE Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and
Practice, ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, ACI Materials Journal, Computer
Applications in Engineering Education, Computers and Concrete, Engineering Structures,
Journal on Advanced Concrete Technology. His Google Scholar h-index is 11.