Twenty eight (28) volunteers from the west coast communities of Dominica, commenced a Community Emergency Response Team training at the Office of Disaster Management (ODM) as the hurricane season enters its peak period.
The Office of Disaster Management with support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) commenced its 15th C.E.R.T training on Monday, August 19th and will end on August 23, 2019. This is the third training being supported by UNDP building capacities in risk awareness and preparedness at the community leave.
“The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is an all-risk, all-hazard training. This valuable course is designed to help individuals protect themselves, family, work colleagues, neighbours, and neighbour-hood in emergency situations,” a release from the ODM stated. “The training provides an opportunity for communities to become more self-reliant when and if disasters affect them and their communities.”
The release goes on to say that The CERT Program “enables the development of multifunctional response teams whose members can give critical support to professional first responders, and provide immediate assistance to victims.”
The components of the training include: Disaster Preparedness, Emergency Communication, Fire Suppression, Medical Operations Part I, Medical Operations Part II and Light Search and Rescue Operations. Other topics are Map Reading and Navigation, Psychology and Team Organization, Course Review and Disaster Simulation.
The Office of Disaster Management is committed to taking proactive and timely measures to prevent or reduce the impact of disasters on the Dominican people and economy through its collaborative efforts with national, regional, and international agencies.
The ODM believes in empowering communities to become self-reliant in understanding the risk posed by hazards that affect Dominica. At the end of the five days training participants will be better Prepared for hazard impacts and better skilled in supporting the response mechanisms.
This appears to be a comprehensive training and needed by many citizens for Dominicans to be as prepared as possible for disasters. I hope to attend one of the subsequent training sessions. I think it should be done as often as possible and some could train others in some of the areas. Good luck to all.