Jan­ice Lear­mond-Criqui

jan­icel­criqui@gmail.com

T&T is no stranger to the dev­as­tat­ing im­pact of nat­ur­al dis­as­ters. In re­cent years, the coun­try has ex­pe­ri­enced floods and oth­er ex­treme weath­er events that have left a trail of de­struc­tion in their wake. May has been marked as the month of Na­tion­al Dis­as­ter Pre­ven­tion and Pre­pared­ness Month (NDPPM) by the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (ODPM). This an­nu­al event seeks to mo­bilise cit­i­zens to ac­tive­ly par­tic­i­pate in dis­as­ter pre­pared­ness and pre­ven­tion pri­or to the com­mence­ment of the At­lantic’s Hur­ri­cane sea­son and the coun­try’s rainy sea­son in June. The theme this year is, “Be­ing dis­as­ter ready is MY re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.”

Recog­nis­ing the ur­gent need to min­imise dis­as­ter loss­es and help pro­tect com­mu­ni­ties, the Emer­gency Man­age­ment As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (EMATT), a non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion es­tab­lished in June 2019, is tak­ing a proac­tive ap­proach by do­ing we­bi­na­rs on Face­book and YouTube so­cial me­dia plat­forms.

EMATT’s fo­cus is on en­hanc­ing dis­as­ter re­sponse and pre­pared­ness in T&T. Through ef­fec­tive co­or­di­na­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion among var­i­ous gov­ern­ment agen­cies, emer­gency ser­vices, and com­mu­ni­ty stake­hold­ers, EMATT aims for dis­as­ter risk re­duc­tion and mit­i­ga­tion through the en­gage­ment of key stake­hold­ers in tak­ing nec­es­sary pre­cau­tion­ary ac­tions and seeks to em­pow­er cit­i­zens to ac­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion in dis­as­ter pre­pared­ness. By stream­lin­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels and es­tab­lish­ing clear pro­to­cols, EMATT en­ables a more co­or­di­nat­ed ap­proach to dis­as­ter man­age­ment, which in turn re­duces re­sponse time and en­hances the ef­fec­tive­ness of emer­gency op­er­a­tions.

Cen­tral to EMATT’s ob­jec­tive is the pro­mo­tion of risk re­duc­tion strate­gies. EMATT em­pha­sis­es the im­por­tance of proac­tive­ly iden­ti­fy­ing and mit­i­gat­ing risks be­fore dis­as­ters strike. By con­duct­ing risk as­sess­ments, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty map­ping, and haz­ard analy­ses, EMATT will help com­mu­ni­ties iden­ti­fy po­ten­tial risks and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties. This in­for­ma­tion is then utilised to de­vel­op com­pre­hen­sive strate­gies that min­imise the im­pact of dis­as­ters and pro­tect lives, in­fra­struc­ture, and the en­vi­ron­ment.

EMATT recog­nis­es the sig­nif­i­cance of en­gag­ing and em­pow­er­ing lo­cal com­mu­ni­ties in dis­as­ter man­age­ment ef­forts. Through ex­ten­sive com­mu­ni­ty out­reach pro­grammes, aware­ness cam­paigns, and train­ing ini­tia­tives, EMATT en­sures that res­i­dents are equipped with the nec­es­sary knowl­edge and skills to re­spond ef­fec­tive­ly dur­ing emer­gen­cies. By fos­ter­ing a cul­ture of pre­pared­ness, EMATT helps build the re­silience of com­mu­ni­ties across T&T, en­abling them to with­stand and re­cov­er from dis­as­ters more ef­fec­tive­ly.

EMATT main­tains a ro­bust mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion sys­tem to as­sess the ef­fec­tive­ness of its pro­grammes and ini­tia­tives. By mon­i­tor­ing key per­for­mance in­di­ca­tors and col­lect­ing da­ta on dis­as­ter loss­es, re­sponse times, and com­mu­ni­ty re­silience, EMATT can make in­formed de­ci­sions and con­tin­u­ous­ly im­prove its strate­gies. This it­er­a­tive ap­proach al­lows EMATT to adapt to evolv­ing chal­lenges and emerg­ing risks, en­sur­ing that its ef­forts re­main rel­e­vant and im­pact­ful.

In the face of mount­ing cli­mate change im­pacts and the in­creas­ing fre­quen­cy of nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, build­ing com­mu­ni­ty re­silience is of para­mount im­por­tance. EMATT, through its mul­ti­fac­eted ap­proach, will play a vi­tal role in re­duc­ing dis­as­ter loss­es in T&T. By fo­cus­ing on en­hanc­ing dis­as­ter re­sponse, aware­ness, and pre­pared­ness, pro­mot­ing risk re­duc­tion strate­gies at all lev­els, (com­mu­ni­ty, pol­i­cy mak­ing, gov­ern­ment plan­ning and de­vel­op­ment, leg­is­la­tion, and en­vi­ron­men­tal best prac­tices), en­gag­ing com­mu­ni­ties, and fos­ter­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion, EMATT will strive to cre­ate a safer and more re­silient na­tion.

With on­go­ing com­mit­ment and con­cert­ed ef­forts, EMATT will bring hope and pro­tec­tion to T&T, safe­guard­ing its peo­ple and their fu­tures.

How to sup­port EMATT

If you would like to sup­port EMATT by vol­un­teer­ing your ser­vice and/or re­sources you can con­tact Stacey Pi Os­ar­ius at 680-1464 or send an email to ematt.con­tact@gmail.com

Check out EMATT’s Face­book page for fur­ther in­for­ma­tion.

Jan­ice Lear­mond-Criqui, CPC, CaribDE is a Cer­ti­fied Pro­fes­sion­al Coach, per­son­al de­vel­op­ment and soft skills train­er, and mo­ti­va­tion­al speak­er.