Philippines: PCDR Celebrates Disaster Risk Reduction Day

Philippines: The Panay Center for Disaster Response (PCDR) celebrated Disaster Risk Reduction Day #DRRday with the rest of the world on Friday, October 13, 2023.

Notably, As a non-government organization that advocates for disaster risk reduction and management, PCDR will continue mainstreaming the community-based disaster management approach that primarily centres on increasing peoples’ capacities and addressing their vulnerabilities.

Most Filipino communities and families are still living below the poverty line, don’t have access to decent and living jobs, are being governed by officials with misplaced priorities, and are made to believe that they are mere victims of disasters instead of survivors who can alleviate their situation by and through collective efforts.

The Government, Civil Society Organizations, and the communities are vital in addressing such vulnerabilities. While addressing peoples’ physical and material vulnerabilities, PCDR must also increase peoples’ capacities through training and awareness campaigns.

Such recognition of the need led PCDR to conduct a First Aid and Rescue Training last October 6-8, 2023, at Iloilo City. In partnership with Health Education and Services for the Less Privileged-Panay, Inc., the training was attended by five communities all over Panay Island.

The training opened with an introduction to First Aid (“Pauna nga Pagtatap” in the local language), highlighting the importance of first aid and introducing the principles of first aid.

Some of the topics discussed during the activity were the taking of blood pressure, how to do CPR, wound dressing and bandaging.

A comprehensive topic on first-aiding various incidents was also given to participants. The sit-down lectures were complimented by a drill, giving participants the experience to respond to different incidents.

As a capacity-building activity, the training affirmed community members’ necessary role during disasters. At the end of the training, attendees were tasked to re-echo the training in their community.

This activity is part of PCDR’s Project, PROJECT EnPREP: Enhancing Disaster Preparedness for Effective Response, supported by Johanniter International Assistance and Aktion Deutschland Hilft.