Castries, Saint Lucia, March 21st, 2019 (CDEMA) -聽Raising awareness among the general public on the natural hazards that are most likely to impact Saint Lucia was the central theme highlighted throughout聽 the launch of new public service announcements (PSAs) for hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis. The new PSAs were presented at the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) office in Bisee, Castries on March 12, 2019.聽聽
In her opening remarks during the launch, Mrs Dorine Gustave, Acting Director of NEMO Saint Lucia said, 鈥淭his initiative by the Vieux Fort South District Disaster Committee is aimed at educating and empowering the public on the correct practices to adopt before, during and after hazards such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis鈥�.聽
鈥淭he timing of these PSAs is pertinent as we see the continuous threats in and out of season that small islands such as ours face due to our size and location. Such initiative is extremely important to us as it falls under the preparation and prevention elements of the Comprehensive Disaster Management approach of NEMO鈥�, said Mrs Gustave. She also summoned all present to take preparedness seriously noting the purpose of the PSAs for changing the culture of safety, actions and mindset.
The PSAs are created in English and Creole, developed with the financial assistance of the United States Agency for International Development-Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID-OFDA). An overall campaign for the roll out of the PSAs will be done over three months starting with the tsunami PSA in March, 2019 to coincide with the CaribeWave simulation exercise, followed by the earthquake PSA in April and the hurricane PSA in May.
In his address, the Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Benjamin Emmanuel expressed delight to be involved in such a critical action, recognising the value of timely information for disaster preparedness. He commended the implementing team for their work in developing PSAs that communicte the message in a聽 way for people to understand and respond to the message and in turn to change their behaviour. He concluded his address by congratulating the implementing partners, NEMO and the Vieux Fort South District Disaster Committee as well as the media for their commitment and dedication shown in the past and going forward, noting that 鈥榳ithout the media, our best efforts would be limited鈥�.
In providing a background to the development of the PSAs, Mrs. Velda Joseph, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Equity, Local Government shared that the focus of NEMO was on education and information dissemination which was felt to be an important element to help communities to develop resilience and a safer environment. The development of the PSAs utilising theatre was pursued as a powerful means of increasing the public reach for greater preparedness and response capabilities noting the creole and English versions as well as the integration of the hearing impaired through sign language.
This launch of the PSAs was undertaken with the financial support of the European Union under the Project entitled 鈥淪trengthen integrated and cohesive preparedness capacity at a regional, national and community level in the Caribbean鈥�.聽
Regional Technical Coordinator, Dr. Alexcia Cooke introduced the Project by explaining the multi-level approach being regional, national and community to be implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent (IFRC. Dr. Cooke highligthed the financial support of Euro 1.3 million from the European Union through its Disaster Preparedness Programme (DIPECHO) for the Project.聽 She noted that the new intiative builds on the work undertaken through the previous EU-funded Project, by seeking to implement priority actions detailed in the roadmaps of the beneficiary countries including Saint Lucia. These priority actions include among other things the roll out of the PSAs for increased hazard awareness and information dissemination.聽
In her overview, she mentioned the commitments made by technical directors of the various departments of the Government of Saint Lucia in December 2018 and those by the Hon. Prime Minister Mr. Allen Chastanet for advancing and institutionalising early warning systems through the signing of the Commitment Statement during the High-level handover meeting on February 1, 2019.聽
The Project supports concrete actions for an effective early warning system, as well as aims to improve information management and operational capacity for an improved Caribbean Regional Response Mechanism. Working with Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Cuba at a national and community level, and with regional early warning and response actors at the Caribbean level including the UNDP, CDEMA, IFRC and UN OCHA are partnering with the General Directorate of Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid of the European Union (ECHO) to reduce the risk of disasters in the region.聽
For further information, please contact:
Clive Murray
Communication and Education Specialist
CARIBBEAN DISASTER EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (CDEMA)
Resilience Way, Lower Estate
St. Michael
BARBADOS
Tel #: (246) 434-4880
Fax #: (246) 271-3660聽
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