A four-day workshop on disaster management organised by Action Aid-The Gambia for its top officials and partners yesterday kicked-off at the Paradise Suites Hotel in Kololi.
The workshop known as bike workshop was meant to equip participants on mastering the secrets of producing instant designs, assessments and proposals during emergencies.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Mr.Omar Badjie, the Head of Programmes for Action Aid-The Gambia revealed that there are three major phases in disaster management, namely pre-disaster, disaster and post-disaster.
"It is more painful and traumatising to respond to a disaster (relief, rescue, evacuation, treatment, shelter etc), rehabilitate livelihoods and go through the process of reconstruction in order to bring back to normalcy," he said.
He challenged the participants to take the training seriously, while encouraging them to incorporate disaster management as part of their normal development work so that the frequency and severity of disasters are significantly reduced.
According to him, "the main objective of the training was to enhance Action Aid The Gambia and its partners' capacity to support disaster affected people with more rapid, large-scale and quality programming".
Mr. Esa Khan, the Executive Director of the National Disaster Management Agency described Action Aid as a very important partner in disaster management.
He noted that the training is timely, putting into consideration the severe floods that had affected the country in recent time.
According to him, government has now made disaster management as a national agenda with a holistic approach to addressing the problem.
The disaster management authority chief stressed that managing disasters requires the collective efforts of all and sundry.
Other speakers included Mr. Sumaila, Action Aid International trainer, who emphasised the need for collaboration in disaster management.
]"Generally disasters are becoming part of us and we must try to address them effectively," he concluded.
