The United Nations General Assembly has designated 13 October as the date to celebrate the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) to promote a global culture of disaster reduction, including disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness. Since it began more than 25 years ago, the day has grown into a major global awareness event celebrated in many ways to encourage efforts to build more disaster-resilient communities and nations.
The Nevis Disaster Management Department, since 2011 has maximized this international event to do several awareness activities based on the themes provided by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).
In addition to IDDR, the department embarked on a 12-month multi-hazards campaign, which involves all the primary schools. In that campaign, the month of October is termed, ‘The Month of Comprehensive Disaster Management or All Hazards Awareness’. On this month, every school is requested to highlight their assigned hazards simultaneously.