Realizing the appeal of animation to young children, Save the Children produced a child-friendly disaster risk reduction booklet, the ‘Alert Little Tun’ to teach children to be aware of and prepare for disaster risks in flood-prone areas. The cartoon booklet has been distributed to ‘Alert Little Tun’ booklets have been distributed to 81 schools, having reached over 21,500 students in central and northern Thailand.  To reach a wider audience at the community level, a puppet show based on the animation was showcased during the ASEAN day for disaster management.

“By using puppetry to attract children, we believe that they will develop a better understanding on disaster risk reduction and can pass the message along to their community,” says Malee Ngimruksa, Senior Emergency and DRR Officer for Save the Children during an interview with the Thai Public Broadcasting Corporation.

Save the Children partnered with The Wandering Moon, a community theatre artist group in bringing the puppet show to children in 10 communities in Pratumthani province in central Thailand as well as Mae Hong Son and Tak provinces in the north.

The puppet show attracted over 4,700 audiences throughout the 3 provinces and was well received in the communities. For Paweena, a 14-year-old grade 8 student of Wat Klong Ban Phrao School in Pathumthani province, whose house was severely affected by the major flood in 2011, the puppet show was especially meaningful.

“The puppet show was fun. It thought me so many things such as how to prepare for a flood, what to do during a flood and all the preparation necessary,” she says. “I can also share the information with my family so we can be better prepared next time there’s a flood.”

For further outreach, the animation has also been produced into a video clips for social media and game cards to be placed in targeted schools.