Spreading the Value of Peace and Resilient Disasters Through Board Games

Author : Humas | Thursday, March 28, 2019 16:28 WIB

Izza Amalia (wearing waistcoat) guides the "Disaster" boardgames. (Photo: Special)

There were many ways to educate society to prepare for facing all possibilities when a disaster occurred. As Izza Amalia, a student of Sociology Department at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM) who used boardgames media to realize schools in vulnerable areas of natural and social disasters, became a school that was cheerful, peaceful and disaster preparedness.

Izza, as she is familiarly called, used media board or table based game to teach disaster and peace. Through various themes, Izza and her ten friends in the Smart School, MDMC initiation, Lazizmu, and Peace Generation Indonesia, spread throughout Indonesia. Izza was placed in Cianjur, West Java for the next three months until May.

"In addition to teaching material modules at Smart Schools, we use board games. So here, we tend to play and learn. Not only material, but our material is also just an intermezzo. Most of us use board games because these modules and board games are more relevant or more suitable to be used for elementary and junior high schools, "Izza said when interviewed on Wednesday (28/3) via WhatsApp.

Learning activities around disaster and peace were carried out by fun methods. (Photo: Special)

Boardgames were considered to be used as a media for mitigation or disaster management. Boardgames were considered capable to increase children's creativity. Games were also able to train children's motor development. The most important, board games can improve children's responses to disaster risk reduction efforts. Technically, this game contained a lot of education about the disaster.

Liked "Disaster" board games, it contained lessons to protect the environment and natural harmony. Competition game and maintain natural harmony between one island and another was to create a safe island from disasters. In addition, there are "Galaxy Obscurio" boardgames, where players must maintain peace through guarding the evil viruses that attack the planet.

Previously, Izza had gone through a rigorous selection stage conducted by Peace Generations. From the hundreds of registrants, Izza was chosen as one of the volunteers sent to various disaster-prone areas like in West Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, West Java, Yogyakarta and East Java. Prospective volunteers of various backgrounds had participated in quarantine before actually be deployed to the field.

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In addition to playing and delivering material, she continued, she also held a disaster simulation which was implemented collaboration with the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), Fire Fighting (Damkar), Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), Puskesmas, Village of Resilient disaster (Destana) and other parties. It also invited disaster and environmental communities in Cianjur.

"We don't stop at pre-disaster education, during disasters, and post-disaster. Not only about natural disasters, but we will also discuss social disasters that will be given material about 12 values of peace. Among them are accepting themselves, understanding prejudice, respecting ethnic differences, respecting religious differences, and other peace values, "she concluded. (Win)

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