More than 450 stakeholders and community members attended the first-ever trainings in
Lebanon on emergency response and disaster mitigation (ERDM), hosted last month by World Vision.
The training is part of a holistic capacity building program to empower communities to
effectively respond when a crisis occurs.
It also aims to enable communities to be able to identify, assess and mitigate the potential source of disaster in their areas.
Offered in each of World Vision's nine community development programs in Lebanon, the training targeted local ERDM committees, Red Cross youth volunteers and World Vision Lebanon volunteers. Each
ERDM committee included representatives of NGOs, community based organizations and municipalities.
'Each of the target groups was given a specific task to undertake in an ERDM situation,'
said Tony Matar, World Vision Lebanon's Grants and ERDM manager.
'For instance the first group will devise a strategy to supervise disaster mitigation programs in response to a Category I,
Level 1 disaster. The second and third groups will be on the field to implement and coordinate the programs,' said Matar.
World Vision is also in the process of pre-positioning
non-perishable commodities within all World Vision community development programs in Lebanon to enable local communities to effectively respond to Category I, Level 1 disasters.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
