The Croatian Draw Data project, funded by DG ECHO, makes disaster risk reduction more engaging and accessible through creative tools such as a comic book for children. By linking local disaster data with clear, playful communication, the project aims to raise awareness and encourage people to take an active role in building resilience to local risks.
The Draw Data project, short for Drafting Disaster Risk Reduction Awareness Raising Guidelines and Disaster Loss Data & Assessment System, set out with an ambitious goal: to connect the dots between disaster loss data and meaningful public engagement in disaster risk reduction (DRR). By strengthening how disaster losses are recorded and analysed, and by translating that information into clear, engaging awareness-raising tools, the project aimed to build a more risk-aware and resilient society.
At the same time, it seeks to develop Croatia’s first national disaster risk management (DRM) awareness-raising guidelines, alongside a monitoring framework to assess the impact of awareness-raising activities and tools developed under the project. At its core lies a simple but powerful idea: people respond better when information feels relevant to their own lives.
One of the project’s most distinctive outputs is a colourful and engaging comic book designed primarily for children aged 9 to 12. The choice of format was deliberate. “We wanted to make disaster risk reduction engaging and understandable,” says Nataša Holcinger, Head of the Croatian Platform Coordination Department within the Ministry of the Interior’s Civil Protection Directorate. “And what better way than a comic book?”
The comic focuses on four key hazards: earthquakes, floods, fires and pandemics, identified as the most relevant risks in Croatia based on national risk assessments. As a playful twist, in Croatian all four begin with the letter P (potres, poplava, požar, pošast), making the concept even more memorable and playful for young readers.
But behind the humour lies a serious message: resilience starts with individual action. “We didn’t want to create fear,” Holcinger explains. “Many artists tend to portray disasters in a very dark way. We wanted something fun, but still educational.” Finding the right tone required careful collaboration. The team partnered with Darko Macan, a prominent Croatian comic book artist known for his storytelling and humour. “We gave him all the information about disaster risk reduction, but we let him decide how to present it,” Holcinger says. “That outside perspective really paid off.”
Macan’s approach brought the story to life through relatable characters, four protagonists inspired, in part, by Holcinger and her colleagues. “We were quite flattered,” she laughs. “Even though we inspired the ‘human’ component, so the joke is on us, we loved every new idea that came our way throughout the two years it made our day every time we received a new proposal to comment!”
For Holcinger, the project meant rethinking how awareness campaigns are designed. “Before the project, awareness-raising activities in Croatia were organised under a one-size-fits-all principle,” she explains. “It has advantages, but people were often presented with risks that are not common in their area, or that they don’t relate to.”
The Draw Data project, funded by DG ECHO under Track 1 grants, addresses this by linking awareness-raising directly to locally collected disaster loss and damage data. Instead of generic messaging, citizens are presented with concrete examples of floods, earthquakes or fires that have caused real damage in their own regions. “When people see what actually happened in their county, how much damage, how many losses, it becomes real,” Holcinger says.
By making risk information locally relevant and evidence-based, the project strengthens public trust and encourages people to recognise their own role in disaster risk reduction, an essential step towards lasting behavioural change.
The project was designed to address two long-standing challenges at once. “Before the project, we had fragmentation on two fronts,” Holcinger says. “Many institutions were collecting disaster loss data, but they didn’t know what others had. At the same time, awareness-raising was also fragmented: different institutions, different messages.”
This lack of coordination made it difficult to build a coherent picture of risks, and even harder to communicate them effectively to the public. At the same time, surveys conducted at the start of the project revealed a deeper issue: a gap in public understanding. “The public is somewhat aware of hazards, but not of risks,” Holcinger explains. “And they are confused about their role. Many people think: civil protection will come and save us.” That perception is exactly what the project aims to change. “Disaster risk reduction is not just about response,” she says. “It’s about what you, as a citizen, do before.”
While the comic book is the most visible output, it is part of a broader collection of awareness-raising tools tailored to different audiences.
For schools, the Civil Protection Directorate already offered educational tools such as the RiskLand board game and a teacher’s handbook. As part of the project, it further developed classroom presentations for different age groups and now the comic book. For younger children, there is even a workbook with colouring activities and puzzles. Civil protection staff play a key role in bringing these materials to life. “Our county offices visit schools and kindergartens on a weekly basis,” Holcinger explains. “We also trained our staff on how to communicate with different groups, from kindergarten children to mayors.”
The comic book itself is being distributed widely, first to school libraries, and now, due to its popularity, also to public libraries through an additional print run financed outside the project. An online version ensures even broader accessibility. “It’s not easy competing with emergency response and their equipment, like trucks, when it comes to children’s attention,” Holcinger admits. “But we want them to understand that prevention matters just as much.”
Inclusivity was also a key priority. “For the first time in Croatia, disaster risk reduction leaflets on 15 hazards were translated into braille,” she notes. These were distributed to organisations working with visually impaired people across the country.
One of the key lessons from the project is the value of creative, unconventional approaches. “Putting public procurement aside, which is always a challenge, the hardest part was deciding what to say and how to say it,” Holcinger reflects. “There are so many important messages in DRR.” The solution? Letting a creative expert from outside civil protection help shape the message. “We let Darko decide what to include,” she says. “He knows how to communicate with children, what is too much information, what is engaging, what is funny. That approach really worked.”
Her advice to stakeholders with similar ideas is clear: “Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. It may be difficult at the beginning, but it pays off. People respond differently to creative approaches.”
Building on the success of the comic book, Croatia is already exploring next steps. These include developing new materials with the same characters and potentially integrating them into school curricula in cooperation with educational authorities. At its core, the message remains simple, and universal. “Disaster risk reduction is often seen as less exciting than emergency response,” Holcinger says. “But we need people to understand: they have a role. Resilience starts with them.”
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