SVG LAUNCHES MINISTERIAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAMS
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, through the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) and Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), launched the first Ministerial Emergency Response Teams.
Under this initiative, a pilot project dubbed “Building Resilience through Anticipatory Approaches to Disasters in the Public Service Buildings” is being carried out at the Ministerial Building over a one-year period.
The project is designed to highlight strategies aimed at building resilience and providing readiness to navigate challenges relating to natural disasters.
Director of NEMO Michelle Forbes said that it is important for citizens to be properly equipped and trained in order to handle effectively, cases of emergency and mitigate some of the challenges in the event of a natural disaster.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service Catherine Joyette noted that this pilot project, engineered by CDEMA and NEMO aims to build the caribbean’s resilience against natural disasters and ensure that the necessary protocols are established and developed in the workplace to ensure that workers are on a need to know basis in the event of an emergency.
Executive Director of CDEMA Elizabeth Riley said that the absence of formal emergency plans and procedures has fostered the need of a more direct approach to ensure tangible results and promote not only the safety of the infrastructure, but moreso, vulnerable workers.
