Hurricane Shelter Management Workshop held

Although the hurricane season does not get underway for another five months, consultations are already taking place to make sure that in the event of a disaster, operations run smoothly inside shelters. Today, a two-day Shelter management workshop got underway at the Belize Institute of Management. The meeting is hosted by the Ministry of Health in conjunction with the Belize Red Cross and the Pan American Health Organization. Participants include personnel from the Belize Defense Force, Police Department, Nurses and members of the Shelter Management Committee. According to Ivorine Bulwer Hemmans the Deputy Coordinator of Health Disaster in the Ministry of Health, the participants are learning how to effectively manage shelters during a hurricane or any other disaster.

Ivorine Bulwer Hemmans, Deputy Coordinator, Health Disaster

?The shelter management workshop is to provide prospective shelter managers with the necessary skills and knowledge to manage a shelter in an event of any disaster. How is the workshop being conducted? In this workshop we have looked at key persons especially those persons who work in emergency areas such as our security officers, our policemen, our nurses and members from the national Shelter management Committee we saw these persons critical to be part of this process because in the case of any disaster these are the people who would be called upon to manage a shelter and we have looked at the past and the way we have had shelters, the resources were not well coordinated and it is important that in the event of any disaster we have people in the shelters, the welfare of those people must be looked at so it is important that there is a level of organization in place pulling resources to manage a shelter effectively.?

Hemmans says she hopes that the participants will share the information they have gathered and train other personnel.