Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross holds stakeholders meeting

The Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross held their first stakeholders meeting for its Disaster Management (DM) programme on Thursday March 6, 2008 at its headquarters.

The meeting involved various stakeholders from the public and private sectors and branches of the Red Cross to discuss ways of working together in their DM programme which is funded by the European Aid Humanitarian Department (ECHO).

After a warm welcome, Angela Gouveia, co-ordinator of the DM programme gave a brief insight on the Red Cross Movement. Nathan Cooper, DM Delegate with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (the Federation) gave an overview of the DM programme.

Dr Allan Bachan, director general, Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross announced that this year they have decided to work with eight villages along the north east coast of Trinidad from Matura to Matelot and also informed the meeting about the criteria used for selecting these communities.

Representatives from the communities gave a brief overview of some of the work that will be undertaken during the programme and how it is going to benefit them.

Dr Bachan also did a presentation on Vulnerability Capacity and Assessment (VCA) as a tool in disaster preparedness.

At the end of the meeting several participants and agencies committed to supporting the project. One such agency was the Ministry of Local Government (which is responsible for general infrastructure of all communities in Trinidad and Tobago) and a follow up meeting with the Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross has been planned.

The Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross has also been contacted by four major oil companies in the country namely the National Gas Company (Trinidad), BHP Billion (Australia) Parroting (Trinidad) and Repsol (Spain) all of which have indicated their interest in supporting the Red Cross’ DM programme and have requested presentations on VCA be done at their respective companies.

They have also committed their resources to assisting the Red Cross in all their programmes.