As the rainy and hurricane seasons approach, the T&T Red Cross Society is ensuring residents of vulnerable communities are properly trained to deal with the impact of natural disasters. The European Commission Humanitarian Office and the Finnish Red Cross have provided funding to the Red Cross to conduct disaster preparedness programmes in communities prone to street and flash flooding among other vulnerabilities. Those communities are La Pastora, Bourg Mulatresse, La Canoa, Debe, Penal and Barrackpore.
The objective is to help people to help themselves in the event of a natural disaster. The project began in December last year and will continue for 13 months. Communities will benefit from training in first aid, injury prevention, community mobilisation and disease prevention, among others. The Red Cross is offering the Community-Based Health First Aid (CBHFA), the Vulnerability Capacity Assessment (VCA) programme and the Community Disaster Response Training (CDRT) in the six communities, culminating at the Penal Community Centre on Friday.
The programmes have to be followed in that order. Some 25 Penal residents, including pre-school teachers and employees from the regional corporation, took part in the CBHFA over the last two days. They are expected to begin the VCA in June. Participants will perform a detailed assessment of a community to determine its levels of vulnerability and ability to respond to risks and hazards posed by disasters before moving ahead to the CDRT.
In addition, 13 Red Cross communicators from the Caribbean were initiated into their roles as humanitarian diplomats at a two-day workshop at Chaguaramas recently. Hosted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies the communicators visited Grande Riviere to learn more about the community's re-afforestation project. The project is being implemented by the Red Cross, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry Division, and the Grande Riviere Tourism Development Organisation.