By Chimezie Godfrey
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has held its second training of emergency responders in the Southern states of the country to assist in handling emergency situations in their various communities more effectively.
The Minister, Sadiya Farouq who declared the training open in Ikeja Lagos on Thursday said that the capacity building initiative is aimed at training local community first responders to address specific needs of the vulnerable, mitigate the effects of a hostile environment on persons of concern and handle the possible long term impacts of crises in their various communities.
The Minister who was represented by the Deputy Director Humanitarian Affairs, Mr Charles Anaelo stated that the training will serve as a platform for exchange of ideas and experience sharing from field operations with a view to entrenching efficient and effective delivery.
“The Ministry believes that enhancing your capabilities on migration issues related to disasters must include training. That is the surest means of guaranteeing that you meet the needs of affected communities at the inception of an incident or disaster, as your roles are always at the initial phase of the disaster.
“This training, therefore, has been carefully designed to guide you (being the closest to the communities) to understand the effects of disasters on migration and how to mitigate such. You are also expected to acquire the ability to appropriately respond to migration resulting from disasters.”
Mr. Nuhu El-Dudeen, a representative of the partnering organization Mzury Nigeria Limited, described the intervention as timely and called on well meaning individuals and organisations to key into initiatives that promote the well being of the masses.
” Mzury Nigeria Limited, a consulting firm located in Abuja has over time partnered with many organisations where our consultants take up capacity building roles for their personnel. This is exactly what we are doing with the Ministry. We are calling on other well meaning Nigerians and organisations to collaborate with government and other companies to bring succor to vulnerable people in the society”.
One of the participants from the Enugu State Emergency Management Agency, Mrs. Chinasa Mba, expressed optimism that the two-day training would equip them in carrying out their duties of saving lives and property in a more professional way.
” In line with the theme of the workshop, we are to get the necessary skills and knowledge which we would in turn take back to our different states to ensure that we respond professionally to situations requiring interventions especially with the massive migration of displaced persons to other parts of the country due to insecurity”.
The two day capacity building for community emergency response teams drew many participants from State Emergency Agencies in Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Cross-River, Delta, Edo, Ondo,Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Lagos States, as well as the National Emergency Management Agency.
Last week, a similar programme was held for emergency responders in 19 northern states of the country.
