St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN):The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) invested US$50,000 in the development of a local educational program to help local institutions prepare for and respond to natural hazards.
The project coming out of the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Agency is called the Disaster Risk Reduction Education Program and was launched on Thursday (October 22) in St. Kitts.
” “In the first instance we’re training mainly the representatives or lead persons from the various organizations. Whether it’s government organizations, community-based organizations who are within the NEMA network as first responders that team up to deal with disaster risk, said Dr. Leighton Naraine, the project leader of the Disaster Risk Reduction Education Program.
“There’s also the private sector, you have the youth ambassadors there and so on, and we have organizations here in St. Kitts as well as in Nevis of course. So the total number there I would say is an average of 30”, he said about the program that kicks into gear on Monday (October 26)
The primary natural hazards facing St Kitts and Nevis include an annual six-month hurricane season, the potential for flooding, landslides, volcanic activity, earthquakes and even tsunamis.
The six-week training project is considered a pilot and will be evaluated and peer-reviewed before consideration is given to having it rolled out in other Caribbean Countries or any further developments in the program.
