Several District Emergency Organisation (DEO) volunteers attended the reactivation of Christ Church South District Emergency Organisation at St. Dominic’s Roman Catholic Church on Sunday.
Barbadians are encouraged to identify vulnerable areas in their community and report it to their local District Emergency Organisation representatives.
Minister of Home Affairs, Information and Public Affairs, Wilfred Abrahams shared this message during the reactivation of Christ Church South District Emergency Organisation (DEO) event on Sunday.
In the hall at the St. Dominic’s Roman Catholic Church, the politician urged the audience of DEO volunteers to do the same. He explained that this information can assist the community by locating possible flooding areas.
“By keeping our drains clear and our wells clear, we can mitigate a lot of the flooding that happens in Barbados,” said Abrahams.
Need for a wider network of volunteers
Abrahams underlined that he was concern that the cohort of volunteers in DEOs are the same members in other local volunteer groups. He is calling for new persons to join these community organisation and for Barbadians to be their “brother’s keeper”.
The Minister also mentioned the specialised training that volunteers received through the Department of Emergency Management and suggested that volunteers should share the knowledge with their family members in their household. He also asked people to think of disaster beyond hurricanes and fires. He said that disaster can happen at anytime and it was necessary to participate in other areas of disaster preparedness training.
Earlier, Department of Emergency Management Consultant, Selwyn Brooks reported that in the past several DEOs were not functioning and others operated at varying levels of effectiveness. Today there are thirty DEOs, one in each constituency. He stressed the importance of DEO volunteers forming a relationship with their community and helping them to raise awareness of their responsibility to ensure that the environments are maintained.