TUFS Students and Fuchu Citizens Carry out Disaster Drill for Foreign Children

June 2, 2017

At TUFS, there are students who work from the Volunteer Action Space (VOLAS) to participate in Japanese language support support for children from foreign countries every week at Fuchu International Salon.

On Friday 16 ^th September 2016, TUFS students participated with citizens of Fuchu involved in the activities at Fuchu International Salon in carrying out disaster drills for children from foreign countries.

Student Activity Report

澤口明里 (School of International and Area Studies East Asian area studies 1 ^st year)
渡辺有実 (School of International and Area Studies Latin American area studies 1 ^st year)

Recently, a disaster drill was held by the volunteers at Kurifu* at the Fuchu International Salon and students at TUFS.

We used quizzes and pictures to give an explanation of the basic actions and things to remember when a disaster occurs that was easy for children to understand. As well as that knowledge, we are glad to have had the chance to see the children actively raising their hands and answering the volunteers' questions, as we don't usually see that in one-to-one activities.

Afterwards, the student volunteers followed the disaster escape route to the nearby primary school. We leaned about the important things to remember when doing this. First is holding the children's hands. By doing this, it is difficult for the children to become separated from the students, and you can prevent the children from feeling panicked by the earthquake. Also, we learned that, while evacuating, as well as things falling from above you need to be careful of things like broken power lines and concrete walls.
Through contact with the volunteering citizens with whom we don't often get the chance to talk, we feel that we were able to get a new perspective on the activities different from a student's point of view.

In the event of a disaster like an earthquake occurring, as well as of course acting with calmness ourselves, we want to keep securely in mind the things we learned about evacuating safely while looking after each individual child

Please click here for more details of the day.
* Kurifu is the learning support club organised by TUFS students for children from foreign countries living in Fuchu which is held every week at Fuchu International Salon with the support of the staff of Fuhcu City.