A five-day Training Session with Volunteers of the North Windward Communities is being held here this week under the Volcano Ready Community Project.
The Training Sessions will be hosted by the University of the West Indies’ Seismic Research Center in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Organization {NEMO}.
Organizers say the training aims to prepare communities to manage potential impacts of La Soufrière Volcano and related hazards.
The Workshop will be held at the Modern Medical Diagnostic Center at Georgetown, beginning 8:30 am.
Minister of Housing, Informal Human Settlements, Lands and Surveys and Physical Planning, Montgomery Daniel will address the opening ceremony.
The “Volcano-Ready Communities in St. Vincent and the Grenadines” project targets 12 communities in the high-risk zones of La Soufrière.
It specifically seeks to improve response capacities through training and risk assessment; develop a “Volcano-Ready” framework and toolkit for communities; and create public education and awareness materials to be shared with schools, businesses, and residents.
Following successful completion of the project, St. Vincent and the Grenadines will be the first country in the Region to hold a “Volcano-Ready” designation.
The twelve communities targeted during the two-year project have been divided into two groups. On the Windward side: Big Level, Colonarie, Fancy, Overland, Owia, Park Hill, Sandy Bay and South Rivers; and on the Leeward side: Chateaubelair, Fitz Hughes, Rose Hall and Spring Village.
The project is being administered through CDB’s Community Disaster Risk Reduction Fund (CDRRF) and is supported by the Government of Canada and the European Union.
