RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

In re­sponse to the grow­ing threat of flood­ing in Wood­land, the T&T Red Cross So­ci­ety and the South Oropouche River­ine Flood Ac­tion Group have pro­vid­ed train­ing to res­i­dents so they can act as first re­spon­ders in emer­gen­cies.

The ses­sion at the Long Stretch Con­fer­ence Cen­tre, Pluck Road, Wood­land, was at­tend­ed by chil­dren as young as 11 who were taught im­por­tant dis­as­ter re­sponse skills.

Dis­as­ter man­age­ment co­or­di­na­tor at the T&T Red Cross So­ci­ety, Stephan Kishore, said it was im­por­tant to equip cit­i­zens with knowl­edge and skills to act swift­ly in the face of dis­as­ter, par­tic­u­lar­ly in iso­lat­ed com­mu­ni­ties like Wood­land where floods fre­quent­ly cut off ac­cess and leave res­i­dents strand­ed.

“Wood­land is one of the most flood-prone ar­eas in the coun­try. It’s es­sen­tial that res­i­dents know what to do when dis­as­ter strikes, es­pe­cial­ly since they are of­ten left on their own when floods hit,” he said.

Kishore said Com­mu­ni­ty Emer­gency Re­sponse Teams (CERT) have been es­tab­lished in com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try and Wood­land is the lat­est to ben­e­fit from the ini­tia­tive.

The CERT pro­gramme, which be­gan a decade ago, has al­ready trained more than 5,000 vol­un­teers across T&T in ba­sic dis­as­ter re­sponse, in­clud­ing fire safe­ty, light search and res­cue, and emer­gency med­ical care.

More com­mu­ni­ties need to un­der­go sim­i­lar train­ing, Kishore said, not­ing that even in the best of cir­cum­stances, dis­as­ter can strike with­out warn­ing, turn­ing un­pre­pared in­di­vid­u­als in­to vic­tims.

“If you are un­aware of what to do in a dis­as­ter, you can be­come a dis­as­ter your­self,” he warned. “It is im­por­tant to ed­u­cate com­mu­ni­ties on the right ac­tions to take dur­ing emer­gen­cies so that they don’t cause fur­ther harm to them­selves or oth­ers.”

Pres­i­dent of the South Oropouche River­ine Flood Ac­tion Group Ed­wards Mood­ie said Wood­land’s des­ig­na­tion as the num­ber one flood-risk com­mu­ni­ty in the coun­try un­der­scores the ur­gency of the train­ing.

“We need to train our peo­ple to deal with any dis­as­ter that may come our way, whether it’s a flood, fire, or any oth­er emer­gency,” he said.

Mood­ie ap­pealed to the Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, cor­po­rate en­ti­ties and the Red Cross to work more close­ly with com­mu­ni­ty groups to en­sure that res­i­dents re­ceive train­ing and the re­sources they need in the event of a dis­as­ter.

Sev­er­al par­tic­i­pants at­tend­ing the train­ing were en­thu­si­as­tic about the skills they ac­quired.

Sachin Har­ri­dass said he was grate­ful for his new-found con­fi­dence in han­dling emer­gen­cies.

“I learned things I nev­er knew, like the re­cov­ery po­si­tion and how to pre­pare for a dis­as­ter or hur­ri­cane. It’s im­por­tant to know how to evac­u­ate an area safe­ly,” he said.

An­oth­er trainee, Na­talia John, high­light­ed the life-sav­ing knowl­edge she gained.

“I learned how to save lives as a first re­spon­der,” she said, not­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of be­ing able to pro­tect not on­ly her fam­i­ly but al­so her com­mu­ni­ty in the event of a dis­as­ter.

The T&T Red Cross plans to con­duct train­ing at Las Lo­mas, Matelot, Spey­side and Ma­son Hall.