Rural Disaster Risk Literacy - CCOUC - Collaborating Centre for Oxford University and CUHK for Disaster and Medical Humanitarian Response

Rural disaster risk literacy in rural China

China is one of the countries most frequently struck by disasters. Rural and poor areas in the remote inland provinces, where ethnic minority groups usually reside, are disproportionately affected by natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and landslides. Many public health interventions could be effective strategies to enhance these communities’ resilience against the adverse impact of disasters. CCOUC has been studying and evaluating the effectiveness of disaster preparedness interventions in rural communities with high illiteracy rate. This project has provided preliminary evidence that health education campaigns in disaster preparedness can empower communities of high illiteracy rate in China and engage them in self-help and household-based preparedness.

Some important questions left unanswered in academic literature and field practices in rural, remote, ethnic minority areas include:

What might make disaster health risk preparedness messages more meaningful?
Who tends to be more receptive to these messages?
Who will actually react to these messages and increase preparedness?

The project has generated some preliminary findings:

40％ of at-risk population are not aware of the disaster risk associated with their geographical areas.
Only 20－30％ felt they could protect themselves and/or their family from the harm of disasters.
Disaster Risk Literacy: Awareness of disaster health risk is not necessary associated with residing in a disaster-prone location. Perception of vulnerability is not related to awareness.
Preparedness actions: Preparedness has a resource dimension, but it seems “a lack of realization of the importance of preparedness” has a stronger association with a lack of preparedness.
Effectiveness of interventions: As association between education/knowledge transfer interventions and sustained improvement of knowledge has been demonstrated, but confidence level drops with time.

Project Duration
Since 2009

Funding
This project is supported by The Chinese University of Hong Kong and University of Oxford.