MODULE __: UNDERSTANDING COMMON HAZARDS

Objectives:
At the end of the module, participants shouldbe able to:

1. Differentiate among the common hazards being experienced in the Philippines;

2. Enumerate various hazard-specific early warning systems; and
3. Discuss the What to Do before, during and after the hazard.

Materials:
Powerpoint presentation
LCD Projector, laptop and sound system
LCD Screen
Museum Tickets/Gatepass
Metacards
Markers and Whiteboard/Manila Paper as scoring sheet for the preliminary activity
IEC Materials (Posters, flyers, handouts) needed for the Museum
Ribbons, colored papers, and other designing material for the museum
3D props for the museum i.e. mini volcano, landslide, tsunami (if any)
Prizes for the winners

Preparations Needed:
Before the session proper, the following must be prepared:
1. Score sheet/board must be set-up in front or beside the tables of the participants.
2. Museum Tickets/Gate Pass must be readily available upon giving of prizes after the guessing
game.
3. Other necessary handouts, flyers, posters and documents for the museum must already be
reproduced and available for distribution to the participants during their visit to the museums.
3. The three mini museums must be set-up by the management team and respective resource
persons before the session proper starts. That is why, this module must be scheduled either first
in the morning or first in the afternoon.
4. There will be a main facilitator for this module. He/she must be aware and familiarized with
the overall flow of the module. He/she must also ensure that curators (resource persons invited)
have set-up their own museum on-time and appropriately. He/she must also ensure that the
curators are informed of their role in the module to avoid confusion.

Time Allotted:

2 hours and 30 minutes (150 minutes)

Facilitation Process:

1. Preliminary Activity (30 minutes)

DRRM Guessing Game

Mechanics:
Group the participants into three non-purposive groups. Give them a maximum of 5 minutes to
come up with a group name (it can be DRRM related or not) and a cheer. Call a group one at a
time to say their name and their cheer.

After all groups have their cheer, explain the gameboard (see Module__. Guessing Game.pptx.).
Enumerate the four categories and explain that each category has five questions with
corresponding points. The categories are the following:

1. Everything under the sun – includes general information and definition

related to DRRM.
2. Handa ka na ba? – anything that can used or can be done before a disaster or
an emergency.
3. Pics and Phrases – participants will guess the set of words or phrases based on
the pictures presented
4. Enabling environment – this includes Policies, Frameworks and other enabling
factors to operationalize DRRM in different levels.

Determine the series of questions through draw lots. Read each question twice and give the
groups 10 to 15 seconds to discuss and finalize their answers. Upon the “go” signal of the game
master, the group will write their answer on the metacard provided and raise upon giving the
second “go” signal. The group with the highest number of points wins the game. (The winning
group will also have the privilege to choose the DRRM Mini Museum they want to visit first)

2. Processing (5 minutes)

SAY (Main facilitator): What do you think of the game? Any insight? Do you have any idea about
its connection to our succeeding activities? (The facilitator may add additional process question
depending on the response of the participants)

Tell the participants that in order to come up with an effective preparedness or response plan, it
is very important that we should first understand the basics of the hazards we are dealing with.
This involves knowing the different characteristics of each hazard and the use of specific early
warning system as well the things to do when these hazards occur (the general things to do by
the public and the things to do as DRRM Coordinators when a particular hazard occur). Upon
knowing all of these will be the starting point for us to prepare as early as now and response
immediately and accordingly.

SAY (Main facilitator): For us to have a strong foundation of knowledge for these hazards we are
dealing with, we will have a simultaneous Museum Tours (Transition to the next activity).
3. Abstraction and Analysis (90 minutes)

DRRM Mini Museums

“In achieving one of the Key Result Area of DRRMS, the DRRM IS and Research, groups of selected
DRRM coordinators are invited to visit three mini-museums with exhibits about the common
hazards experienced by most schools in the country.”

The groupings used in the preliminary activity will also be the same groupings for the mini-
museum visits. Each member of the group must have a ticket or passes to enter the museum.
Tickets will be provided after the DRRM Guessing game together with the awarding of prizes.
There will be simultaneous visitation for the groups of participants in the three mini-museum.
The visits will be accompanied by the curators (invited resource persons from PAGASA, MGB and
PHIVOLCS). The exhibits over the following topics:

Topics Concerned Agency Remarks

Tropical Cyclones PAGASA The discussion will revolves around
Flood the definition of the hazard and its
Storm Surge respective Early Warning System
(EWS)
Landslides MGB Discussion will include reading hazard
Reading Hazard Maps maps using the Geohazard Web
Portal
Earthquake PHIVOLCS Discussion includes definition and
Volcanic Eruption EWS
Tsunami

Each group has 30 minutes to visit and stay in each mini-museum. A total of 1 hour & 20 minutes
will be spent in visiting the three museums. This must cover all the presentation of the resource
person and the questions and answer portion.

SAY (Main facilitator): Anyone who wants to share their learnings in the Museum Tours? What
struck you most? Why? Other insights you want to add?

SAY: (Main facilitator): Aside from the usual “natural and human induced” hazards, there are also
other kinds of hazards that can be considered as small or sometime being disregarded but can
cause disaster. These are the following:

BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS - Associated with working with animals, people, or infectious plant
materials. Work in schools, day care facilities, colleges and universities, hospitals, laboratories,
emergency response, nursing homes, outdoor occupations, etc. may expose you to biological
hazards.
Types of things you may be exposed to include:
· Blood and other body fluids
· Fungi/mold
· Bacteria and viruses
· Plants
· Insect bites
· Animal and bird droppings

CHEMICAL HAZARDS - Are present when a worker is exposed to any chemical preparation in the
workplace in any form (solid, liquid or gas). Some are safer than others, but to some workers
who are more sensitive to chemicals, even common solutions can cause illness, skin irritation, or
breathing problems.
Beware of: Liquids like cleaning products, paints, acids, solvents – ESPECIALLY if chemicals are
in an unlabeled container! Vapors and fumes that come from welding or exposure to solvents
Gases like acetylene, propane, carbon monoxide and helium Flammable materials like
gasoline, solvents, and explosive chemicals. Pesticides

ERGONOMIC HAZARDS - Occur when the type of work, body positions and working conditions
put strain on your body. They are the hardest to spot since you don’t always immediately notice
the strain on your body or the harm that these hazards pose. Short- term exposure may result
in “sore muscles” the next day or in the days following exposure, but long-term exposure can
result in serious long-term illnesses.
Ergonomic Hazards include: · Improperly adjusted workstations and chairs · Frequent lifting · Poor
posture · Awkward movements, especially if they are repetitive · Repeating the same movements
over and over · Having to use too much force, especially if you have to do it frequently · Vibration

PHYSICAL HAZARDS - Hazards or stressors that cause stress (short- term effects) and strain (long-
term effects). These are the hazards associated with workplace issues such as workload, lack of
control and/or respect, etc.
Examples of work organization hazards include: · Workload demands · Workplace violence ·
Intensity and/or pace · Respect (or lack of) · Flexibility · Control or say about things · Social
support/relations · Sexual harassment

SAFETY HAZARDS - Hazards or stressors that cause stress (short- term effects) and strain (long-
term effects). These are the hazards associated with workplace issues such as workload, lack of
control and/or respect, etc.
Examples of work organization hazards include: · Workload demands · Workplace violence ·
Intensity and/or pace · Respect (or lack of) · Flexibility · Control or say about things · Social
support/relations · Sexual harassment

SAY (Main facilitator): Now that your knowledge on the common hazards were test in our DRRM
Guessing Game and enhanced during our Museum Tours, we will now apply all our learnings in
our next activity.

4. Application Activity (20 minutes)

A. Application Activity (First Option)
For 5 minutes, each participant will list down all the hazards they know or they are experiencing
in their areas. Identify the corresponding and available early warning system. Given those, they
will also enumerate the preparedness measures or practice they are doing in dealing with the
hazards.

Upon listing down, another 5 minutes will be given to the group discuss their answers and write
in a manila paper what are the common answers from the group and what are the unique (see
template below). Each group will choose a presenter and will be given 3 minutes to report their
output.

Group XXX
Common Answers
HAZARDS EARLY WARNING SYSTEM PREPAREDNESS MEASURES
1. 1. 1.
2. 2. 2.
…. …. ….
Unique Answers
HAZARDS EARLY WARNING SYSTEM PREPAREDNESS MEASURES
1. 1. 1.
2. 2. 2.
…. …. ….

B. Application Activity (Alternative Option)

DRRM-Story Making

The three groups will be given a set of DRRM words and concepts. Each group will have to make
a story by using the words provided. It can be in English, Tagalog or both language. The theme of
the story will be determine through draw lots. It can be comedy, horror or inspirational. The story
must be at least 1000 words.

HORROR COMEDY INSPIRATIONAL

Disaster Disaster Disaster

DRRM Coordinator DRRM Coordinator DRRM Coordinator
Before, During, After Before, During, After Before, During, After
Earthquake RADaR Typhoon/Super Typhoon
Early Warning System Flood School
Teacher School Head/Principal Learners
Tsunami Volcanic Eruption Storm Surge
MGB Color-coded Landslide
Geologic Hazards PHILVOCS PAGASA
 … Forever Hydro-meteorological
… Hazards
A thousand years
…

Ask the participants if they have questions or clarifications on the common natural hazards they
learned or revisited, three to five questions can be accommodated. If none or after the questions,
proceed with the short discussion on the safety hazards.

Safety Hazards

Key Learnings (5 minutes)

After this session, participants learned that:

 The various common hazards that we experienced are geological hazards such as
earthquake, liquefaction, volcanic eruption and tsunami; hydro-meteorological
hazards such as different classification of tropical cyclone, storm surge and
flooding and each hazard has its own characteristics and potential impacts.
 There are general things that the public must done before, during and after the
occurrence of a particular hazard. Likewise with the things that must be done by
us as DRRM Coordinators.
 There are relevant and hazard-specific early warning system which can be utilized
in order to minimize the impacts of the hazards.

We DRRM practitioners, when dealing with hazards is like solving an equation or a Math problem.
In order to come-up with a solution, we need first to determine the nature of the problem. That
is what we did earlier, we learned the basics of different hazards. Our knowledge were refreshed
and reinforced.

References

— Session 7. EWS and MH Planning from World Vision

— Basic Instructor’s Guide for CBDRRM, OCD-JICA
— http://www.gov.ph/crisis-response/government-information-during-natural-disasters/
— www.pagasa.dost.gov.ph
— www.unisdr.org/we/inform/terminology