TWENTY-FOUR residents of Region 6 (East Berbice/ Corentyne), including members of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDC) recently participated in a Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) Workshop from  April 18th– 20th , 2013 at the Little Rock Hotel, New Amsterdam, Berbice, a  Civil Defence Commission (CDC) press release said.

The workshop was run by the CDC through its volunteer corps with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
This workshop, which was facilitated by the CDC and Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) Instructor, Mr. Sean F. Welcome, included presentations on Comprehensive Disaster Management, Introduction to Community-Based Disaster Risk Management, Participatory Risk Reduction Planning and Community-Managed Implementation.
Additionally, the participants were engaged in case studies, discussion forums and a field exercise.
According to the release, the community of Fort Ordinance, Canje, Berbice was selected as the pilot community for this project, and the capacity-building component was phase one of the project, while phase two  will consist of the community interactions/surveys and the drafting of a CBDRM Plan for the community.
The workshop was the first of three similar workshops planned by the CDC  through its Volunteer Corps, and the remaining two will be done in Regions 4 (Demerara/Mahaica)  and 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) at a later date.
“The CDC, with support from UNDP continues to extend its mandate of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in an effort to make Guyana and Guyanese a more resilient place and people,” the release stated.
Certificates of participation were presented to the participants by CDC Operations and Training Officer, Major Kester Craig.