Family-based disaster response board game

Reinforcement of community disaster resilience through a family-based disaster response board game
Good Practices

Family-based disaster response board game

Reinforcement of community disaster resilience through a family-based disaster response board game
Children sitting round a table playing the board game, with one of them holding up a card

The project in brief

The project was implemented by The Promise International in South Korea. It ran from January until May 2022.

Our project is for refugees and migrants, one of the most vulnerable groups during disaster situations, to strengthen their disaster response capacities through a family-based disaster response board game. This board game contains not only the physical aspect such as how to evacuate, but also addresses the psychological aspect through education. Community interpreters, who very often act in leadership roles within their community, have been provided with training for this project.

The project aims to improve community disaster resilience through community interpreters’ empowerment

Main activities of the Good Practice

There are two main types of activities:

  • Training sessions for trainers (community interpreters) based on the content of the board game. Through these sessions, the trainers can better understand disaster response-related content on the physical and psychological aspects, and can translate and deliver more accurate content in participant families’ languages.
  • Board game session with families

Partners involved

  • Ansan Global Youth Center
  • HomoInter (NPO which provides community interpreting training and psychosocial support for sustainable community interpreting environment)
Photo of the board game - cartoon images of various animals (foxes, tigers, owls, polar bears) and pawprints marking the path through the game

What challenges were encountered in delivering the project and how were they overcome?

Challenges

  1. Understanding the content for accurate translation and interpretation
  2. Recruiting participants and raising awareness of the need for disaster response

How they were overcome

  1. Through a couple of sessions training trainers (community interpreters) and taking sufficient time to help them better understand the content
  2. Communication and recruitment through interpreters who are very often community leaders

Results of the Good Practice

Above all, we were able to strengthen the disaster response capacities of community refugee & migrant support center and community interpreters. It was also a good opportunity for family participants to talk about disasters and to become aware of the need for preparation, such as "While my children receive safety education at school, I didn't know well, but it was good that we(family members) could learn from playing board game together."

In addition, the board game is written in Korean, the host community language, and the languages of refugee participants at the same time such as English, French, etc., so everyone can participate in the game together to strengthen their response ability to disasters in the community beyond individuals.

In what way does the good practice meet one or more of the four objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees?

Objective 1: Ease the pressures on host countries

The enhancement of refugee and migrant families’ disaster response capacity can contribute to their host community disaster resilience.

Objective 2: Enhance refugee self-reliance

It can help refugee and migrant participants to get resources related to disaster response on the physical aspect and the psychological one also.

Next steps

In cooperation with the Korean Red Cross, 110 board games have been distributed to 14 branches nationwide in Korea, and now we plan to switch to online games and introduce them to the Red Cross Federation around the world.

Board games were introduced at GPDRR2022(Global Platform Disaster Risk Reduction) held in Bali in May 2022. In addition, we plan to introduce and disseminate online board games using the worldwide Red Cross network together with the Asia Pacific Disaster Resilience Center of the Korean Red Cross.

Submitted by:

Yoohyun OH, The Promise International: 
[email protected]