Workshop discusses coastal community resilience

Workshop discusses coastal community resilience - 29.02.2008 ( from Seychelles Nation)

Over 40 delegates belonging to the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWS)) from the region and beyond are meeting over three days in the Seychelles to exchange knowledge and analyse tools and practices for enhanced coastal community resilience.

They are carrying out the exercise through a three-day workshop being held at the Maison de Football, Roche Caiman.
The workshop is being hosted by the Department of Risk and Disaster Management (DRDM), with the support of the United Nations (UN) International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).

It is being organized under the theme ‘Approaches to Coastal Community Resilience’, and its main highlight was the showcase of Silhouette island as a small and resilient community, through a 15-minute documentary that was shown to participants after the workshop’s official opening yesterday.

The opening, as well as the screening of the documentary, took place in the presence of the special advisor in the Office of the President, Dr Rolph Payet; the Head of the Secretariat of ICG, Tony Elliot; and DRDM’s director general, Michel Vielle, who also happens to be the Chairman for Group 6 – Mitigation, Preparedness and Response of the ICG/IOTWS.

Participants of the workshop come from countries around the Indian Ocean region, notably Malaysia, Indonesia, Timor, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, and Seychelles.

Local participants attending the workshop are said to be partners to DRDM in the collective effort to manage and limit the outcome of disasters and such in the event they should occur on our territory.

Red Cross joins in efforts to address risks of climate change

Red Cross joins in efforts to address risks of climate change - 25.02.2008
The Red Cross Society of Seychelles (RCSS) in collaboration with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Change Centre (RCCC) organised a one-day session last week under the theme “Understanding and addressing the risks of climate change”.

The one-day session, held at the International Conference Centre, is the first in four steps of a Memorandum of Understanding, signed recently between the RCSS and the RCCC, ´Preparedness for climate change 2006-08´. The objective of the MOU is to strengthen the capacity of the national society to better understand and address the risks of climate change to the vulnerable people in the country and the implementation of its programs.

Speaking to Seychelles Nation after the course’s opening, the Disaster Management Coordinator for the RCSS, Andy Roucou, said that climate change poses the threat of exposing the world to various humanitarian crisis, and as an organizations which deals with such emergencies, it is imperative that actions to gain knowledge of the phenomenon are engaged sooner.

Citing as example, he said that if the water were to rise because of global warming, Red Cross and Red Crescent societies all over the world would be required to assist those affected by the happening, and so it is important to brainstorm in this respect, “in order to identify what is expected of us should such a tragedy struck”.

Among the facilitators of the workshop was the special adviser in the President’s Office, Dr Rolph Payet.