Mr. Robert Harewood, Community Preparedness Manager, Department of Disaster Management and Coordinator of the training

Tortola, BVI, August 28th 2006(Department of Disaster Management)- More than 20 volunteers turned out at the St. Ursula’s Community Centre in Virgin Gorda over the weekend for Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training hosted by the Department of Disaster Management.  CERT is designed to prepare individuals of a community to carry out an organized response to a hazard impact to help save lives and preserve property.

The training included introduction to disaster management concepts, individual and family preparedness, medical operations, disaster fire suppression, CERT team organization, basic search and rescue, disaster psychology, neighborhood security and water safety.  Professionals from the Department of Disaster Management, Disaster Auxiliary Corps, BVI Fire and Rescue Services, Mental Health Department, Royal Virgin Islands Police Force, Virgin Islands Search and Rescue (VISAR) and the Conservation and Fisheries Department facilitated the training.

The premise of CERT takes into consideration that “emergency services may not always be able to respond immediately after a disaster, especially since it takes time for multi-agency mobilization to effect an organized response” said Robert Harewood Community Preparedness Manager for the Department of Disaster Management and Coordinator of the training.  Community members will be able to make a difference by using the training to help with the preservation of life and property post disaster. Mr. Harewood cautioned “the training received last weekend was just the tip of the ice-berg as the volunteers are now required to organize themselves into Response Teams for further, more in-depth instruction.”

Participants, which included volunteers from the BVI Red Cross, the Disaster Auxiliary Corps, Little Dix Bay Hotel, BVI Fire and Rescue Services, the Health Services and other community members agreed that training of this nature is needed and the training provided them with useful information that they could use not only in disaster situations but in their every day lives and they look forward for future training initiatives of this kind.

Contact:  Natasha Lettsome, Information Training Manager
Telephone:  (284) 494-4499
E-Mail:  nlettsome@gov.vg