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Nepal is exposed to frequent earthquakes. There is a felt need for promoting disaster risk reduction action at community level, promoting existing community cohesion for use in disaster preparedness and replication of positive experiences. Involvement of women has been identified as one of the effective ways to motivate and mobilize communities to reduce disaster risks and enhance disaster preparedness. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Frontline program was implemented in the four communities of Chandragiri municipality during 2015 with support from GNDR. Preparing the local risk profile and the action plans to reduce those identified risk was the main approach of the Frontline program.

During the Frontline survey, the community identified earthquake as the top threat in the community and non-structural mitigation as one of the priority actions. The members of the women network started advocating for earthquake safe communities and implementing the risk reduction measures. This action has developed understanding of the process, scientifically and systematically, and boosted their confidence with important new technical skills and new leadership roles in their community to mitigate the earthquake risk.

This case study records the experience of the women’s group in Nepal using their NSM learning in their own houses to reduce vulnerability. They started vulnerability reduction with their own kitchens and bedrooms by fastening their cupboards, frames, freezes, gas cylinders, etc. This led to implementing the mitigation measures in their locality and outside their community. This has been a step toward achieving a safer community through safer houses and schools.

One of the most significant concerns of disaster management is that community at large is reluctant to initiate pre‐disaster measures at the individual level. Disaster education to schoolchildren offers the most vital answer to this grave concern. The objective of this study is to identify the factors which enhance students' awareness and promote the actual action for disaster reduction.

This study is based on a questionnaire survey in six selected schools of Kathmandu, Nepal. Different awareness levels have been established to identify effective educational factors at each level. The analysis showed the way to implement the education program.

Results showed that current school disaster education – which is based on lectures – can raise risk perception, but it cannot enable students to know the importance of pre‐disaster measures and to take actual action for disaster reduction. Self‐education is effective for realizing the importance of implementing measures. Community plays the essential role for promoting students' actual actions for disaster reduction. Future disaster education in school should be active learning for students. Continuous community involvement is the most important factor for school disaster education.

This study focuses on the direction of disaster education for schoolchildren. Specific cases of the education should be customized, based on the results of this study.

The study findings are of significant importance for school teachers or education department while designing the curriculum for disaster education.

The findings and recommendations are field‐tested in Nepal and hence offer higher possibilities of adaptation, particularly in developing countries.