Disaster Preparedness Training 9th March' 2006

Omar Asghar Khan Centre for Development (OACD) organized a two day training about Disaster Preparedness. The training is a part of long term Capacity Building Plan to capacitate Disaster Management Committee (DMC) at village level. The training comprised of 35 participants including 13 Females and 22 Males.

Mr. Mukhtar Javed, Principal Programme Coordinator, Good Governence Programme opened the training by delivering a session about "Disaster Management" at the community level. The other resource persons from social development and infrastructure development would be the part of the training. Mr. Mukhtar has highlighted the concept, causes and affects of disaster. A number of myths related to disaster were shattered after the initial session. The people came to know about the relation of hazard and vulnerability that ultimately lead to a disaster. Different types of disasters like Earthquake, Flash Flood, Land Slide and Avalanches were discussed in detail. The participants would prepare a disaster mitigation plan by the end of the training to be implemented in their respective villages. The participants took a keen interest in the session and raised a number of questions that were appropriately answered.

The second day focused on reconstruction with special emphasis on a selection of suitable housing place on the building codes. Mr. Ahmed Jan has shared his experience and expertise with the participants. He emphasized on the discrepancies due to which a house is affected by the earthquakes and also provided suggestions for a better construction in future.

Dr. Manzoor Ahmed Awan, Programme Manager OACD has also shared his viewpoints with the participants. Thanked them for attending the training and had taken feedback. From the participants a women has shared her productive experience about trainings, she mentioned that she has participated in the training 2 months before earthquake due to which she was able to save many lives. She emphasized that the training is must especially for ladies who are more affected by the disasters.