By Jel Santos A total of 38, 929 emergency kits were distributed by the local government of Makati City to the students of the 13 public high schools in the city. Mayor Abigail Binay said it is salient for the young Makati residents to always be prepared, saying this project of the city government aims to promote preparedness. (MyMakati / MANILA BULLETIN) “We want our youth to learn the importance of self-help and preparedness. Through this project, we are able to inculcate a culture of preparedness among young Makatizens,” she said. The distribution of free emergency kits or Go Bags is part of the local government’s continuing efforts to build disaster resilient and sustainable communities. Binay stressed that helping pupils adopt disaster readiness as a mindset and way of life will make them much less vulnerable to the impact of any untoward incident. As such, she said it will also enable them to influence their parents and other members of the family. “Resilience must be inclusive and should be pursued through the collective effort of all our stakeholders. We hope that providing our students with individually-packed go bags will motivate their parents to prepare their own go bags for the entire household,” the mayor said. According to the local government, the emergency kits help residents to survive 72 hours after a disaster. Each bag contains essential needs such as food and drinking water, hygiene kit, first aid kit, flashlight, and other handy materials. This year, the city is eyeing to intensify and widen the reach of its Go Bags to include all public elementary and high school students. “Eventually, the goal is to provide one Go Bag 2 to each of the 90,000 public school students of Makati.”