The ‘School Disaster Awareness Social Responsibility Project’ conducted by Assoc. Prof. Cengiz İPEK from the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences and Assoc. Prof. Alpaslan Hamdi Kuzucuoğlu from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of our university in cooperation with the Turkish Red Crescent as the stakeholder institution has been completed.
A school disaster awareness project was carried out between October 29 and November 4, 2021, within the scope of the cooperation protocol signed by the Turkish Red Crescent Association and our University, in order to improve disaster awareness through lifelong learning in the community and to create behavior change in disaster risk reduction and taking precautions in cities. The project was designed to increase the awareness of the students, teachers and employees of Kocaeli Kartepe Süleyman Şah Primary School, which was selected as a pilot school, through disaster awareness training.
As part of the project, Assoc. Prof. Alpaslan Hamdi KUZUCUOĞLU held an information seminar titled “safe school”. Explaining the concepts of danger and risk in the occupational health and safety risk assessment regulation, KUZUCUOĞLU conveyed examples of danger and risk that may occur in schools. Then he talked about the precautions to be taken during and after an earthquake. Finally, he talked about the items that should be in the school emergency plans and thanked the teachers and students of the institution who supported these efforts for the society.
Assoc. Prof. Cengiz İPEK, on the other hand, held an information seminar in which he explained the behavior patterns in disasters. Stating that educational institutions need a Disaster Emergency Plan in order to take the right steps in case of a disaster, İPEK emphasized that the identification of hazards and analysis of risks and the management and administration of resources within the framework of the objectives and principles of disaster management should be handled within the framework of a plan. For this reason, he mentioned that it is very important to determine the duties and officials in order to protect the students, teachers, civil servants and all other personnel in the school against earthquake and fire and to minimize the loss of life and property with the measures to be taken before, during and after the earthquake and fire.
We congratulate our faculty members and wish them continued success.