Parish builds-up community-based disaster preparedness

Learning from the experience of parishioners affected by Typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban and the advocacy of disaster preparedness of the province of Albay, a parish here in the Archdiocese of Davao is building-up its community-based disaster preparedness program.

San Pablo Parish in Juna Subdivision, Matina, Davao City wants to make disaster preparedness a built-in program of the Basic Ecclesial Communities or Gagmay’ng Kristohanong Katilingban (GKK) under its jurisdiction.

In an interview with DCHerald, the Parish Social Action Ministry Coordinator of San Pablo Parish Eric Hernandez said they have gathered the members of GKK who will be trained as GKK Disaster Risk Reduction In-charge of their respective communities.

Recently, the parish has gathered 38 lay people from the GKK for their orientation. They are targeting to complete the number since they have 54 GKKs under the parish jurisdiction.

Hernandez said they will also create a committee on disaster preparedness in the GKKs who will monitor any incidents in the community like fire, floods, among others. The committee will also put up a system on evacuation, relief goods gathering and distribution, and rehabilitation.

“This initiative was inspired by what we saw and learned in Tacloban during the DADITAMA medical mission. We can’t afford to let the same thing happen to us here,” Hernandez said.

He said they will also attend the proposed Seminar on Climate Change on March 16, to give them an overview of what’s happening around the world and in the country especially on environmental concerns.