Disaster management: ‘Disaster prevention and management be improved through community participation’

Volunteers will respond to crises in their jurisdictions.

LAHORE: Rescue 1122 Spokesperson Jam Sajjad Hussain said on Saturday that volunteers would only be inducted in the community emergency response teams province-wide after their credentials had been rigorously screened. 

Director General Rizwan Naseer said the community emergency response teams (CERTs) were striving to improve public response to disaster management. He said the initiative had also been taken to enable the public to assist rescuers in effective disaster management. Naseer said the teams were composed of volunteers including students and people associated with non-governmental organisations. He said over 8,000 rescuers in 36 districts and tehsils had been especially directed to identify possible hazards in their jurisdictions. Naseer said all rescuers had also been directed to assist volunteers in disaster management and prevention.

The DG said rescuers who took ingenious initiatives to prevent untoward incidents would be awarded Rs100,000 cash each. He said if each rescuer convinced 10 relatives and friends to volunteer then the department would be able to raise a force of 80,000 community response team members quickly.  Naseer said it was binding on everyone to secure communities nation-wide. He said Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar had conceived an initiative regarding this in his capacity as the president of Safe Communities Pakistan (SCP).

Community Safety Wing head Ruqaiyya Bano Javed told The Express Tribune that every team member would be called a scout and volunteers working as team leaders would be called rescue wardens. She said the teams would comprise members from one community composed of 100 houses in a tehsil. Javed said they were required to respond to emergencies in their jurisdictions. She said this included eliminating potential hazards, putting out small fires, evacuating affected areas, providing those injured with first aid and assisting other volunteers to establish command posts, staging areas, medical triage and treatment areas.

Javed said the volunteers would be given membership cards on completion of basic life support and fire safety training. She said they would be provided protective gear including basic response equipment, vests and helmets. Javed said the volunteers would be given certificates of appreciation on completion of two years of community service.

Spokesperson Jam Sajjad Hussain said the volunteers were expected to serve their communities for at least two years. He said they would be trained in community-based disaster risk management, participate in simulation and annual disaster exercises and complete the community action for disaster response course. Hussain said the volunteers would be required to have FSc certificate in pre-medical. He said they would only be inducted after their credentials had been rigorously screened. Hussain said the initiative would enable them to be in a better position to compete for vacancies in the department. He said a proposal to provide volunteers with a daily stipend was under consideration.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2014.