Belize Red Cross Prepares to Respond to Community Disasters

At the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, the Belize Red Cross is preparing its volunteers for emergency response. Over the last month, the Belize Red Cross has been hosting a series of trainings for lead volunteers across the country, teaching them the basics of interacting with the media and preparing other volunteers to serve their communities. Today, we spoke with Monica Heredia, the Volunteer and Youth Development Manager at the Belize Red Cross about these important sessions.

Monica Heredia

Monica Heredia, Volunteer and Youth Development Manager, Belize Red Cross

“This training is a series of training for the Caribbean Prepared Project which is having volunteers prepared and ready for any disaster, emergency, or crisis. So two weeks ago we had a training on communications and talking to the media to have the volunteers ready to speak to the public on what the efforts of the Belize Red Cross is and today they are working on training these people to work with volunteers in emergencies. So anytime we have an emergency in Belize, we have an influx of last minute volunteers, which is great. We love having people help the Belize Red Cross. But, they are not trained. So we are training the people that lead the branches to work with these volunteers. All of them are experts in their communities, because they are members of their communities. When we train them, we know that community is trained in first aid. They have national intervention team members who can do anything from search and rescue to water and sanitation. So, the importance of having these trainings and getting these people ready is so that anything that happens there we have people on the ground ready.”