The annual Disaster Management Awareness Campaigns were officially launched on Friday, 23 October 2026, by the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) together with the Western Cape Provincial Disaster Management Centre (PDMC) at the R.P. Botha VGK Primary School in Zoar situated in Kannaland.
The campaign, this year, will continue up to 30 October 2026, with the main focus on schools and communities in the Klein Karoo region of the district. The aim of the initiative is to educate learners about the risks of disasters and to promote a culture of safety, preparedness and resilience among the local communities.
Using an interactive educational play which features Gerry the Giraffe, the mascot of the Western Cape Government Disaster Management department, learners are given an introduction to the essential safety measures and the practical steps they can take to protect themselves, their families and their communities from disasters. The awareness campaign is centred around the main hazards of the season, especially floods, fires, electrical outages, and impacts of illegal dumping. Thus giving learners the knowledge needed to identify possible risks, take preventive action and respond properly in an emergency.
The programme aims at engaging pupils at primary level to reinforce awareness of disaster risk from an early age and get the learners to pass on the knowledge they have acquired to their families and communities. In this way, a culture of preparedness for disasters is developed and safer, more resilient communities are built throughout the Garden Route.
After the event in Zoar, awareness sessions will take place at schools in different parts of Kannaland and Oudtshoorn, the programme being scheduled to end in Van Wyksdorp on 30 October 2026. As part of these activities, the GRDM, the PDMC and the local municipalities wish to improve community preparedness and reduce disaster risks before the summer season.
Each year the campaign stresses the need for proactive disaster risk reduction and the part that education and cooperation play in making communities better prepared to deal with seasonal hazards.
In alignment with the International Risk Reduction Day theme “Communities that have made preparations are resilient communities; disaster preparedness begins with awareness and awareness begins with us.”