CDC set to launch education campaign first week in February

Georgetown, GINA, January 31, 2014

 

The Civil Defence Commission (CDC) will be launching a comprehensive public education campaign on Friday, February 7, 2014, at the Umana Yana, Kingston, that targets school aged children and youths and will inform on the various types of disasters, actions to take, if and when they occur, and methods of preparing for such catastrophic events.

“Everyone has a role to play in disaster preparedness,” CDC’s Director General, Col Ret’d Chabilall Ramsarup said today, at the final evaluation of the agency’s Strengthening National and Local Capacity for Disaster Response and Risk Reduction Project.

He noted that youths also have a key role to play in the sharing and dispersal of critical information which may be needed to prepare, survive and recover from any potential disaster.

Final evaluation of the Civil Defence Commission’s Strengthening National and Local Capacity for Disaster Response and Risk Reduction Project

The campaign will include posters, debates, poems composition competitions and exhibitions, and is being launched with collaboration from the Ministry of Education, along with various stakeholders.

The project, funded by the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) resulted in interviews, document reviews, research and a fact finding visit to Region 6 (recently flood affected) conducted by Consultant Dr. Hans M Ewoldsen. Issues or potential disasters assessed, included riverain floods, storms, drought, forest fires, tsunami, industrial/ chemical spills, massive explosions and illegal waste disposal.

The project’s objectives are to build capacity, develop strategies to achieve required capacity, development of staff along with facilities, and educating and training for stakeholders according to Dr. Ewoldsen. He said that, thus far all of the objectives have been met, noting that the CDC is prepared to provide overall management of any disaster locally.

The CDC will also be launching, in addition to its education campaign, its strategic plan for the next two years, in the near future.

 

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