DUSHANBE, October 24, 2012, Asia-Plus — To mark the International Disaster Risk Reduction Day, Focus Humanitarian Assistance (FOCUS) jointly with the Institute of Professional Development of Tajikistan and with the financial support from European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department (ECHO) and its Disaster Preparedness Programme (DIPECHO VII), held events in Khorog City Park, Gorno Badakhshan (GBAO) on October 13 and in two GBAO schools on October 15 and 17, press release issued by FOCUS on October 24 said.
The event in Khorog City Park reportedly gathered together nearly 200 people, who observed the demonstration of first aid and basic search and rescue by the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs). Representatives from World Food Program, GIZ, Aga Khan Health Service (AKHS), UNICEF and others were present. Dr. Alibek Alibekov, Manager of Cross Border Health Program at AKHS said of the CERTs “I was impressed with the professional work and the wonderful preparation of the CERTs. Even though these volunteers don’t have a medical background; however they thoroughly followed the entire techniques during the first aid step-by-step”. So far, 59 CERTs with approximately 900 male and 900 female volunteers have been trained in Tajikistan.
Since this year’s theme of the IDRR Day was “Women and Girls – the (in) visible force for Resilience” – women were actively involved in the event. Zebo Odilbekova, 41, CERT leader in Khidorjev village, Roshtqala district shared her volunteer experience, “A year ago I was urgently driven to an upper village to help a man, who attempted a suicide. I gave him a heart massage and artificial respiration that helped him to survive until he received professional medical treatment. I can recall plenty of such instances, where lives and assets were saved by our team”.
FOCUS also involved approximately 100 schoolchildren from several schools who participated in the day’s events. The schoolchildren actively participated in a disaster related quiz competition for which they received awards from the Head of GBAO Committee of Emergency Situations (CoES) and the Executive Officer of FOCUS. In addition to giving information to all participant on what to do when an earthquake occurs, they were also shown and asked to practice the ‘Drop, Cover and Hold-on’ techniques.
As part of the events interactive theatres were held in two schools in GBAO, with performances by schoolchildren of different ages. Over 200 schoolchildren were actively engaged in different activities and competitions such as: preparing evacuation bags with essential items called Go-Bags, finding a safe place to evacuate during an earthquake, essay writing, drawing and quiz competitions for which the winners received awards.
“I have learned new things from this event. Before I didn’t know that we have to prepare an evacuation bag. Now I know that and also I know what items I always have to keep in my bag” says Ruqiya Nosirova, 7th grade student.
