Village better prepared for natural disaster

By Yolanda Lavata’i 10 November 2018, 12:00AM

The village of Vaimoso concluded their five day training on disaster preparedness with the Disaster Management Office (D.M.O.) yesterday. Part of the training included re-diverting traffic to allow for a drill.  

The Community Disaster and Climate Risk Management (C.D.C.R.M.) is a Government programme funded by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Education (M.N.R.E.), Economic Wise Adaptation for Climate Change (E.W.A.C.C.) and the United Nations. 

Disaster Management Coordinator, Lauvao Isara Iose said the C.D.C.R.M. is a community-based toolkit that was endorsed under the disaster management plan that every village in Samoa should have. 

“It was an integrated approach from all agencies not only Red Cross but the Samoa Ministry of Police, Samoa Fire and Emergency Services, Samoa Ministry of Health and Nuanua O Le Alofa also known as Disability Advocacy Organization of Samoa,” Lauvao said. 

The programme ran for two weeks, with the first week focused on training, and the second was given to the community to prepare, and the last day was to test and analyse the village’s response. 

The training included demonstration of Government procedures in any disaster, starting with evacuation, registration of evacuation sites, providing first aid to the casualties, search and rescue then last, conducting an initial damage assessment. 

Vaimoso had been trained last week Monday to Friday and this week the village was initially in charge of preparing and allocating all the teams in the village for a response. Friday was the last day to test their response on how to cope with problems in times of disasters.

Sixteen youths from the village have been certified for first aid and received 10 first aid kits to help respond to needs in the village.

“We are really happy with the outcomes today and how well the community has responded. So Vaimoso has completed their C.D.C.R.M. package,” added Lauvao.  

Lauvao said the success of their training and programme all lies on the correspondence and support from the village’s coordination and has made it a goal to have the same results from the next villages. The next training will be conducted at Anoamaa district before reaching Faatoia village in Apia.

By Yolanda Lavata’i 10 November 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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