Meeting up

3rd Steering group meeting – Rome, Italy – 30th January-2nd February 2017

The 3rd Steering Group Meeting took place at the Save the Children Italy offices in Rome on 30^th January to 2^nd February 2017. Day 1 was dedicated to the European Commission (EC) mid-term review which involved EC monitors and the project steering group.

On Day 2 we were joined by the CUIDAR Advisory Group and Ethics Board, some travelling from as far afield as Australia, Chile and the United States. Our hosts, Save the Children Italy, arranged a field trip to Amatrice. The team visited the Save the Children Youth Centre set up in the aftermath of the magnitude 6 earthquake which hit central Italy on 24^th August 2016. The Italian Red Cross estimated that almost 3,000 people were displaced and over 4,000 people received humanitarian assistance. The Civil Protection authorities reported that 299 people died, including 238 in Amatrice. In addition 387 people were taken to hospital and 238 were rescued from collapsed buildings. It was an emotional trip seeing the devastation caused by the earthquake and having the chance to meet and talk with Civil Protection volunteers, Save the Children staff and members of the community.

Two single-storey wooden buildings with large windows opposite each other with heavy snowfall in the foreground

A row of unfinished one-storey yellow houses seen through wire fencing

A Christmas tree on the left hand side of the image, with a van and digger in the background

Rubble of a collapsed building with snow in the foreground

A man climbing a telegraph pole with the remains of a damaged building in the background

Day 3 provided us with an opportunity to draw on the vast experience of our CUIDAR Advisory Group in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR); to reflect on our trip to Amatrice and to consider how to incorporate these discussions into the developing CUIDAR project framework. The focus on Day 4 was our six-monthly Steering Group meeting, where we discussed the Mutual Learning Exercises (WP4), the National Events (WP5) and the Project Film.

Three people sat in a row in discussion. One of them is leaning to speak to the other two, while the man in the middle holds a piece of paper and pen, and the man on the right holds a laptop

Six people sat on chairs in a semi-circle in discussion

Six people in discussion round a table with pens and papers laid on it

Six people sat round a table in discussion with papers scattered across the table

Eleven people stood up round a room with their hands to both ears

Five people sat round a table with papers scattered across

2nd Steering group meeting – Thessaloniki, Greece – 30th June-1st July 2016

Our second Steering Group meeting, hosted by our Greek partners from the University of Thessaly, took place in Thessaloniki, Greece at the end of June and beginning of July 2016.
The meeting began with a visit to a special educational setting for hard of hearing children in Thessaloniki where the first set of workshops had been held. There we met up and talked with the teaching staff and we saw the models the children had made as a result of their research and discussions about disaster – earthquakes and forest fires were key themes here.

Small red rucksack on table with torch and other items with backdrop with children's posters

Next we travelled to the Seich Sou Forest National Park where we met up with the Forester Rangers and Fire Fighters who are based there. As we looked down on the vast city of Thessaloniki below, the Foresters talked to us about the risks of forest fires in their region and how they manage these risks.

We then returned to Thessaloniki where we continued discussions with our partners including a session led by our Spanish partners, Isra and Dani about our Work Package 2 Scoping Report and then an interactive session about participation led by our Save the Children partners from the UK and Italy.

And this is how our Italian partners – Save the Children Italy – introduced their team…

1st Steering group meeting – Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal – 21st-22nd January 2016

The first Steering Group Meeting was hosted by our Portuguese partners at the University of Lisbon. Discussions over the two days included: the developing Scoping Review (Work Package 2), led by our Spanish partners Israel Rodriguez-Giralt and Daniel Lopez; Ana Grisi from Save the Children Italy led on Dialogues with Children (Work Package 3); our communication strategy linked to ethical issues working with children and the developing CUIDAR website.

Four Cartoon images on tiles from board game displayed on wall

The meeting also included a site visit to the Department of Civil Protection of Lisbon’s Casa Tinoni – a centre designed specifically to educate and engage children in health and safety issues including hands on activities, videos, and games.

Kick-off meeting – Save the Children Offices, London, UK – 16th-17th July 2015

The CUIDAR consortium met for the Launch Meeting on the 16-17th July 2015 at the Save the Children offices in London. This was a fantastic opportunity for all of the partners to meet face-to-face to share and exchange ideas and plan for the future whilst interacting with workers from Save the Children’s head office.

The images below show members of the consortium creating models which help build understanding of the different contexts of disaster management and the role of children. Drawing on her background in creative arts research, the session was led by Dr Amanda Bingley from Lancaster University.