Children find disaster knowledge useful as they travel far to school

Jairus is an 18-year-old from Belanimanu inland of the Weather Coast of Guadalcanal. He is now in grade four since he attended school late because the distance from his village to their school did not allow him to do so early. Jairus and other children in his village can walk three hours to attend school and another three hours to return home daily. 
On a recent visit to Belanimanu Village, the team met him. He was very attentive to the programmed organised by the community to the visiting team from World Vision Solomon Islands and Regional Staff from WV US, WV Australia, and WV New Zealand. 
Belanimu was one of the ten Malaita and Weather Coast of Guadalcanal communities that benefited from the USAID disaster risk reduction funded project in 2021. During the recent visit community members appreciated the support through World Vision Solomon Islands. 

"Before this project came to our community, I didn't know what to do when we experienced wind and rain, but after our community received the project, I know what to do especially our community know what to do when we hear corned shell, we can come together at the evacuation center, especially during strong winds," 
Mr. Jairus added that the knowledge they learned from the project helped them in school. 
"Our school is far, where we can walk three hours to reach, and on our way, we cross rivers; thus, when we learn about disasters, the knowledge is with us, and whenever there is rain, I always tell our teachers to consider us who need to cross rivers to go home and we sometimes go early," he said. 

Other children of Belanimanu also testified that the knowledge is useful to them daily. 
WVSI is now implementing phase II at new Weather Coast communities and Temotu Province.