ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: With the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus crisis worldwide, including Iran, the need for corona prevention and treatment has become a national priority. With many businesses closed in the wake of COVID-19 and job losses and declining incomes, vulnerable individuals' and families' access to the minimum wage and healthcare facilities is falling, and their health is exposed to a great risk. In Iran, a significant number of vulnerable groups are supported by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). This study is designed to understand the performance of NGOs after the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was carried out based on qualitative research between June and September 2020 in Tehran. This study was conducted using individual interviews with 33 managers and experts of 24 active NGOs providing services to vulnerable groups and a member of an NGO network. Data were analyzed using content analysis. RESULTS: Two main themes of service initiatives were extracted: (a) service initiatives to protect the target population against COVID-19 infection and its aftermath and (b) management initiatives to retain staff, finance, and adapt the organization to crisis situations. Service initiatives included five categories of health service initiatives, livelihood, employment, education, and leisure initiatives, while organizational management initiatives include human resource management, financial management, and communication with organizations. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 breadth and its special features have set it apart from other crises and have led NGOs to work hard on several fronts to care for the most vulnerable people against the epidemic and its consequences and maintain the performance of their organizations. The unique role of cyberspace has made it one of the definitive pillars of the activities of NGOs, not only during the epidemic but also after its end.
ABSTRACT
Schools have a significant role in disaster education to children. This study investigates the research works about school-based education programs in order to discover challenges and best practices. We conducted a systematic review of English language papers published in peer-review journals.The search identified 2577 publications and 61 articles meeting selection criteria and included in the review. Reviewed studies indicated that disaster education in schools is effective but yet insufficient in many countries. Lack of equipment, financial resources, policy gaps, and teachers' knowledge are common problems in programs. Main outcomes of this systematic review are showing methods used for health emergency preparedness of children of different ages and gender differences in school-based disaster preparedness, as well as the difference in their lifesaving skills in disasters.This study shows that some disaster education programs reported in the papers reviewed were not high-quality enough, which may lead to insufficient preparedness of children in disasters and consequently may put their health at risk, considering the increasing number of natural hazards.
Subject(s)
Civil Defense , Disaster Planning , Disasters , Child , Humans , SchoolsABSTRACT
School textbooks are one of the main sources for teaching and learning in an education system. This study aims to investigate the representation of disasters in school textbooks for the children with intellectual disabilities (ID) in the education system in Iran. This study uses a qualitative content analysis method. All school textbooks for students with ID in the education year 2019-2020 in Iran were collected. Among the whole 164 textbooks, 18 had content about hazards. Data were analyzed qualitatively by MAXQDA 2018 software. Textbooks in most grades cover the topic of disasters triggered by natural hazards including geophysical (earthquakes), hydrological (floods), climatological (extreme temperatures, and drought), meteorological (storms/wave surges) and biological (epidemics and insect/animal plagues). Moreover, there are various topics of disaster risk management in the textbooks including mitigation, preparedness, and response. Natural hazards are well covered in school textbooks for students with ID in Iran. However, more content about sheltering in disasters, reunification, as well as disasters’ response and recovery will help children with ID in Iran to perform better during and after disasters. Moreover, the textbooks in several grades provide some debates on the prevention and the spread of infectious diseases for preparedness against epidemics. The COVID-19 pandemic and the significance of preparedness of vulnerable groups against pandemics evidence that school textbooks are a key means to transfer the information of preparedness in emergencies of all sorts to all children including children with ID.