Introduction
In recent decades, more disasters have occurred.1 Disasters are one of the major threats to children’s health.2 According to the origin, disasters triggered by natural hazards and technological hazards. Natural hazards are categorised as geophysical (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis and volcanic activity), hydrological (avalanches and floods), climatological (extreme temperatures, drought and wildfires), meteorological (cyclones and storms/wave surges) or biological (disease epidemics and insect/animal plagues).3 Technological hazards are such as conflicts, famine, displaced populations, industrial accidents.3 WHO defined ‘All-hazard approach’ as a concept acknowledging that, while hazards vary in source (natural, technological, societal), they often challenge health systems in similar ways. Thus, risk reduction, emergency preparedness, response actions and community recovery activities are usually implemented along the same model, regardless of the cause’.4 Children are one of the most vulnerable groups during and after disasters.5 Disasters can seriously damage children’s physical and mental health.6 It also harms children indirectly, so that its outcomes may last a lifetime.7 8 In addition, disasters destroy children’s educational infrastructure and disrupt learning in children.9 Moreover, following disasters, violence against children increases in sexual, physical, psychological and neglect forms.10 Child trafficking has been reported as one of the impacts of disasters in the affected areas.11 Children who have lost their parents or caregivers and the children whose parents cannot afford to live will have to work after disasters.12 Early marriage is another case reported in the affected areas, especially for girls.13 14 Each of the above-mentioned cases also affects social, economic and political structures.15 These consequences will last for generations.16 Although timely response and good governance have a significant effect in preventing such consequences, children’s readiness can be one of the main solutions to reduce postdisaster losses.17 18
In previous decades, most managers and decision-makers would think that children are not able to take care of themselves and they need help from adults.19 Therefore, most interventions for disaster preparedness were defined for adults. But now researchers have found that children can respond appropriately to an accident and stay healthy.20 The United Nations has recognised raising the children’s awareness as one of the main pillars of children’s readiness.20
School as a place where almost all children gather to enjoy the opportunity to learn, can be the best place to prepare them for disasters.21 The required knowledge and skill can be provided to the child in various ways in schools, one of which is practical training and skills development.22 Although various studies have been conducted on the interventions in schools to prepare the children for disasters, no systematic review has been yet conducted to identify methods and challenges.
Aim of review
The main purpose of this study is to identify the methods, outcomes, facilitators and barriers of educational programmes in schools to prepare children for disasters. In addition, the differences of processes and outcomes in terms of type of disasters and social inequalities, including geographical location, age, gender, disability, ethnic and religion belief, are investigated. However, as the fundamental aim of the school-based programmes is to prepare children in order to reduce trauma in those exposed. It is not possible for the proposed narrative synthesis to address the effectiveness of these programmes in reducing trauma among exposed children.