CHENGDU, May 9 (Xinhua) -- An official with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday called for a greater role for children in efforts and initiatives to reduce disaster risks.

“Perhaps it is not intuitive to consider that a child may be able to be part of helping a community reduce risk,” said Douglas Noble, UNICEF Deputy Representative to China. “Yet, experience shows that children have knowledge and ideas about risks and how to address them.”

Speaking at a forum in commemoration of the disastrous Wenchuan earthquake a decade ago, Noble also stressed the need to be “reactive and proactive” in order to make children and communities better prepared and more resilient in the event of disasters.

Noble noted that children are affected by disasters in many ways, from death, injuries, and diseases related to malnutrition, to poor water and sanitation, and psychological trauma and its debilitating effects. Noble made the remarks in Beichuan, one of the worst-hit areas during the earthquake that killed more than 80,000 people.

In 2015, UNICEF China and several agencies of the Chinese government launched a disaster risk reduction program in Sichuan, aiming to help make children, families and communities less vulnerable to and better prepared for disasters.

“We will continue working with government counterparts, including the new Ministry of Emergency Management, and bring our international experience to disaster risk deduction,” Noble said.

In the three years following the quake, UNICEF provided nearly 42 million U.S. dollars in support for earthquake recovery and reconstruction, according to the organization.