THE Civil Defence Commission (CDC), as part of its disaster risk management initiative, has successfully delivered and conducted training in shelter management, damage assessment and needs analysis and emergency operations centre management, in all 10 Administrative Regions of Guyana.

A CDC release said 219 persons were trained in shelter management, 204 in damage assessment and needs analysis and 210 in managing emergency operations centres.
The figures represent an 82 percent attendance rate for the shelters and shelter management workshops; 76 percent for the damage assessment and needs analysis ones and 79 percent for the emergency operations centre management, the release explained.
The CDC said there was an overall satisfactory attendance of 79 percent at the completion of this programme and, apart from conducting the various training sessions, the agency also provided each Regional Democratic Council (RDC) with an emergency operation box.
The release said the emergency operation boxes contain items such as copies of the map of the region, the map of Guyana, various emergency data, stationery and office supplies etc. Those items will be used in the setting up and operating of the Regional Emergency Operations Centres (REOCs) whenever the need arises.
The CDC said with this newly acquired knowledge, skills and resources, the trained personnel are now better equipped to function in the three specialty areas, thereby positively contributing to DRM capabilities of their respective regions.

PERSONS TRAINED
Additionally, the respective RDCs are better positioned to establish the REOCs and the Regional Disaster Risk Management Committees, using some of the persons trained by the CDC.
“The remainder of trained personnel can be used to establish the various sub-committees and response teams, such as DANA and Shelter Management,” the CDC said.
The release added that follow-up DRM training will be done by Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs); Vulnerability Capacity Assessment (VCA), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) to further strengthen the DRM capacity at the community and regional levels.
The CDC said, after consultation with the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development and several meetings with the Regional Executive Officers (REOs) of the 10 Administrative Regions, it embarked on the mission to conduct DRM training in the regions.
“This was all in a bid to build the Disaster Risk Management (DRM) capacity and levels of resilience at the community and regional levels and, by extension, the country,” the release noted.
This process started in July 2012, with the training of 85 persons from Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara) and concluded on September 14, 2013, with the training of 69 more persons from Region 5 (Mahaica/Berbice).
The CDC training team comprised Major Kester Craig; Captain Sean F. Welcome; Captain Althea Daniels-Stuart; Mr. Carlton Semple; Mr. Owen Paul and Ms. Susan Lewis-Clarke.