Special
Courses
A Study Course
on Disaster Management and Social Relief in
Thailand and a Study Tour on Disaster Management
in Sri Lanka for the Officials of the Beijing
Civil Affairs Bureau, China (24th June –
4th July 2002):
20 officials of the
Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau (BCAB) attended
ADPC’s study course on Disaster Management
and Social Relief between 24th and 28th June
2002 in Thailand. After the course, the participants
went to Sri Lanka — one of the ADPC’s
program countries for a study tour between
1st and 4th July.
Based on comments and requests from the Chinese
participants who attended the courses, ADPC
paid much attention to further improve the
Chinese course for the officials of BCAB.
Previous to the course, Mr. Robin Willison,
Director of Technical Services and Ms. Lingling
Jiang, Program Coordinator of Technical Services
visited the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau when
they attended the China National Stakeholders
Consultation Meeting on Cooperative Project
for Combating Sand and Dust Storms in Northeast
Asia in May in Beijing. At that time they
had detailed discussions about the course
arrangements with relevant officials of BCAB.
In addition, ADPC’s Training team designed
the Training Needs Assessment Questionnaire
and sent it to BCAB before the course in order
to assess participants’ needs for course
content. This was the first time for ADPC
to design such a questionnaire for the Chinese
participants.
In this course, some new topics were added, such as responding to sandstorms, environmental health, water and sanitation, preparedness planning, command and control center, management of international assistance, emergency response in USA, disasters and development, and the new trends in disaster management, etc. The participants were very interested in these topics. Moreover, two field visits were undertaken during the course. The participants went to the office of the Thai Red Cross (THRC) and visited the stockpiles of disaster relief of the THRC. They also visited the No. 1 Center of the Senior Citizen in Bangkok.
At the closing ceremony, Dr. Suvit Yodmani, Executive Director of ADPC gave a warm speech to thank all officials, who actively participated in the course. Dr. Suvit also highly praised the good relationship and partnership between ADPC and BCAB. BCAB has been sending the officials to attend ADPC’s course since April 2000. ADPC and BCAB signed an MoU in May 2002. One of the objectives of the MoU is organizing series of training courses on Disaster Management and Social Relief and Community Based Disaster Management in ADPC for the officials of BCAB and its sub-units on an annual basis. Dr.Suvit also hopes to expand further collaboration with BCAB based on the MoU between ADPC and BCAB. Mr. Liu Zhenshan, Head of the delegation and Deputy Director of the Division of the Disaster and Social Relief of the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau expressed his appreciations to ADPC on behalf of the participants. He said that they learned a lot from the course. The arrangements of this training course were of the extra fine quality. He also said that a one-week course seems too short and they did not want to leave ADPC because ADPC staff and environment impressed them very much.
From 1st July 2002,
the Chinese delegation visited Sri Lanka --
one of the ADPC’s Asian Urban Disaster Management
Program (AUDMP) countries -- accompanied by
Ms. Lingling. The Sri Lanka's Center for Housing,
Planning and Building (CHPB)/Sri Lanka Urban
Multi Hazard Disaster Mitigation Project (SLUMDMP),
the AUDMP country project partner organization,
coordinated and organized this visit upon
the request of ADPC. The Chinese officials
traveled to Colombo, Ratnapura and Kandy,
and visited the relevant government agencies
at national and local level, NGOs and a famous
university in Sri Lanka—University of Peradeniya.
The presentation made by Sri Lankan officials
and experts impressed them. The Chinese officials
were also very interested in visiting and
discussing with Dr.David Ratnavale, Chairman
of the Human Disaster Management Council of
the President’s Office of Sri Lanka. Dr. David
visited China many times and published relevant
articles in an International journal to introduce
China after he came back. Other places visited
were the Bandaranaike Museum in Colombo, which
was built by the Chinese government in 1970s,
the flood prone areas in Ratnapura, which
was SLUMDMP Demonstration City, and the Gem
mining area in Ratnapura, which causes land
subsidence, etc
The Sri Lankan people have recognized that
it is very important to focus on disaster
preparedness and mitigation by implementation
of the SLUMDMP. This impressed the Chinese
officials deeply. They expressed that they
learned a lot from the experiences of Sri
Lanka. In addition, the Chinese officials
expressed their appreciation to the Sri Lankan
team under the leadership of Mr. Lionel Hewawasam,
Deputy Director of CHPB and the supervision
of the Director, CHPB, Mrs. Geethi Karunaratne,
who kindly assisted and guided the delegation
during the study tour in Sri Lanka.
Study Course
on Disaster Management and Social Relief for
Chinese Civil Affairs Officials of Shaanxi
Province and the Ministry of Civil Affairs
(17 - 20 December 2001):
On 17 December 2001, the fourth special course on Disaster Management for Chinese Civil Officials in year 2001 was opened. Nineteen officials from Shaanxi Province and two officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs China attended the course which lasted four days up to 20 December 2001.
In the Opening Ceremony,
Dr. Suvit Yodmani, Executive Director of ADPC,
first welcomed the officials. Mr. Huang Yongan,
Minister - Counselor of the Embassy of China
to Thailand inaugurated the course. He also
encouraged the officials to participate actively
and try their best to gain from the course.
Mr. Wang Zhikun, Director of Department of
Disaster and Social Relief, as well as the
head of the delegation, also made remarks
on behalf of all the officials.
Based on the feedback from the previous courses,
improvement was made in the curriculum to
better meet the learning needs. Basic knowledge
on disaster management such as the disaster
management cycle, risk assessment, preparation
and mitigation of disasters was given in sound
presentation. As drought has been the most
serious disaster in Shaanxi Province, a session
on drought management was conducted. A session
on "Minimum Standards in Emergency Response"
was also systematically organized and delivered.
Furthermore, an interactive lecture on Social
Relief in Thailand was made by senior expert,
Mrs. Poonsuk Cotigavanit, Deputy Director
of Department of Public Welfare, Ministry
of Labour and Social Welfare. She introduced
the concepts and principles of social relief
and how they are being implemented in this
country. A field trip to the Center for Care
of Senior Citizens in Bangkok was arranged
as part of the exposition on Social Relief.
This was the first time such trip was undertaken.
The course was successfully
conducted although some unexpected logistics
inconvenience occurred. In the closing ceremony
Mr. Wang Zhikun extended his sincere thanks
on behalf of all the delegates for ADPC's
great efforts in guaranteeing the success
of the course in spite of logistics difficulties.
Dr. Suvit also thanked the delegates for their
understanding and active participation. Both
sides expressed agreement to continue the
cooperation.
Disaster
Management Course for Civil Affairs Officials
of Beijing (21-27 August 2001) From
21-27 August, a delegation comprised of 20
Beijing Civil Affairs Officials led by Mr.
Guo Bo-xiang, Deputy Director of Beijing Organization
of Receiving Donation, attended a training
course on disaster management at ADPC. It
was the third course ADPC conducted for China
this year and also the third for Beijing Bureau
of Civil Affairs during the past two years.
To reinforce the support from Thai Government to ADPC’s cooperation activities with China in the Disaster Management field, Professor Dr. Krasae Chanawongse, Minister to the Prime Minister's Office as well as Chairman of the ADPC Board of Trustees, was invited again as chief guest in the opening ceremony. In his address, he encouraged the participants to try their best to study the course and perform actively in the class in order to learn as much as possible on disaster management. Col. Brian Ward, Director Emeritus of ADPC, made his presence and welcomed the participants on behalf of Executive Director Dr. Suvit Yodmani. Ms. Zenaida Delica, Director Training and Education Division said at the opening ceremony that ADPC is pleased to continue to serve the government of China by building the capacity of their staff in effective disaster management.
The course was designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of participants on pre, during, and post disaster-phase-management strategies and activities. Topics like risk assessment, mitigation, preparedness, warning system, public awareness, damage assessment and needs analysis and relief and recovery were discussed during the five days of course. A number of teaching methods such as interactive lecture, workshops, group discussion and individual presentations were used. The participants found the training methodology very effective and interesting.
