Improving Schools’ Disaster Preparedness

(ZIZ News) – The St. Kitts and Nevis Red Cross Society is continuing its disaster preparedness activities with a project targeting the schools.

The Red Cross, on Friday, hosted a one-day consultation with representatives from public and private schools to find out their level of disaster preparedness.

National Director of the St. Kitts and Nevis Red Cross, Natalie Fough, said this is part of an overall initiative to boost the schools’ disaster awareness.

“Prior, the St. Kitts and Nevis Red Cross hosted a project for schools for school safety and it’s really to get the schools involved and get their mind heightened on disaster itself, if it occurs within the school and how they can go about it,” she explained.

Regional Representative of the International Federation of Red Cross, Lorraine Mangwiro said the voice of the community is critical when crafting disaster preparedness policies.

She added, “Communities know best how to help themselves. They are not disabled. They have a lot of ideas so what we want to do as service providers is to include the voices of the communities into decision making, so our decisions are actually formed on the basis of what communities are telling us.”

The findings of the consultation will be submitted at the World Humanitarian Summit later this year.