Disasters have a major health, educational, economic, physical and psychosocial impact on the most vulnerable, notable children, women, aged persons and the sick. Disasters destroy human lives and damage hospital and school infrastructure, stop health care, disrupt educational cycles, exacerbate poverty, force children to drop out of schools, and affect the resiliency of communities.

Various disasters highlights growing concern over the effects of disasters on education and health. Risk reduction is imperative for both education and for health. It may be possible to build better after a disaster, but it is not possible to replace lost lives or to restore health completely.

To raise public awareness and to create a demand for safe schools and hospitals, a campaign which is referred to as the “One Million Safe Schools and Hospitals” was conceptualized through the initiative of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. The campaign was designed to have a simple message, Make a pledge, save a life. For this purpose, the campaign focused on pledging – promoting actions that can be taken by various stakeholders in their own way. A pledge is an expression of a commitment to take action by an individual, family, community, organisations, government or any other entity.

This paper presents the concept of the campaign which is pledging online. The campaign principles, mechanics and medium are presented. The contents of the website are also described. Various ways on how civil engineers, in particular, can contribute in the campaign are also presented.