Study Course on Disaster Management and Social Relief for Chinese Civil Affairs Officials from Hubei, Liaoning province and the Ministry of Civil Affairs (23-26 July 2001)

A Study Course on Disaster Management and Social Relief for Chinese Officials was held from 23 - 26 July. Thirty-five officials working on civil affairs attended the course. Amongst them, 20 were from Hubei province and 12 from Liaoning province, as well as 3 from the Ministry of Civil Affairs. This was the first group of Chinese officials, who came to ADPC for a training course, under the auspices of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China. The course was received with lots of interest and attention from the senior leaders of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Dr. Zheng Yuanchang, the Deputy Chief of Secretariat of China National Committee for International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction/the Ministry of Civil Affairs was the delegation leader.

The course opening ceremony was participated by Dr. Suvit Yodmani, Executive Director of ADPC, Mr. Chai Xi, Political Counselor of the Chinese Embassy to Thailand, the participants and some of the ADPC staff. The course was inaugurated by Professor Krasae Chanawongse, Minister to the Prime Minister's Office and Chairman of the ADPC Board of Trustees who was the chief guest at the ceremony.

The course was comprised upon two modules; 1) disaster management, 2) social relief as per the needs of the Chinese officials. The first module covered topics on disaster situation in China, concepts and terms of disaster management, disaster preparedness, damage assessment and needs analysis and disaster relief. Second module was consisted upon case studies of social relief from Philippines and Thailand. The cases highlighted the concepts, principles, strategies and experiences in social relief in the two countries. Madam Corazon Alma de Leon, Former Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare Philippines and Vice Chairperson of ADPC Board of Trustees, and Ms. Achana Vutthisomboon, Chief of Foreign Relations Sub-division of Social Studies and Planning Division, Department of Public Welfare, Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare Thailand were the speakers in this regard.

The participants found the course very relevant to their work and they appreciated ADPC's efforts in organizing a module on social relief (welfare) and inviting such experienced resource persons. Some useful suggestions were given by the participants to make the module more effective in future. Group leader, Dr. Zheng thanked ADPC for organizing the special training course in his closing speech. Ms. Zenaida D. Willison, Director of Training and Education Division ADPC and Madam Corazon also thanked participants for their active participation. Both sides expressed their desire to continue cooperation between the two agencies for disaster reduction in China. Finally, Ms. Zenaida and Madam Corazon jointly presented Certificate of Attendance to the participants.

Click here to see photographs.