By Janet A Sesay
BRAC Sierra Leone with Meteorological Agency embarks on a Sensitisation tour to different communities in Sierra Leone.
The two institutions are in partnership in the implementation of the three-year sensitisation campaign.
The former is a local non-governmental organisation that helps communities through soft loan facilities while the latter is a government institution charged with the responsibility of weather forecast and early warning signs of natural disasters.
It is in furtherance of the objective of dissemination of early warning signals a workshop was held for stakeholders from Rogbere, Yankasa, Port Loko and its environs.
The participants were taught how to use rain gauge, weather and other early warning equipment which have been set up in their communities.
With the knowledge acquired from the workshop, participants can forecast weather on the rain gauge, read and present to the Meteorological Agency.
The sensisatisation campaign dubbed ‘Building Community Preparedness for Resilience’ is to warn about flooding, storm, environmental and other disasters.
It also educates communities on several aspects in relation to disaster preparedness, search and rescue, first aid, disaster risk and vulnerability assessment among others.
The campaign which commenced sometime in November, 2017 is expected to end in March this year.
Sheku Alaka Tejan Mansaray is the Coordinator for Emergency Preparedness and Response Programme at BRAC.
Mansaray, during the workshop, urged participants to take ownership of the project.
“This is a community-focused project. The community people are the owners and leaders of the project,” Mansaray asserted.
Mansaray also call on communities to utilise implements given to them in the construction of drainages as a way of preventing flooding and other disasters.
The Director-General and head of operations at the Meteorological Agency, Gabriel Kpaka was also present during the workshop.
Kpaka spoke about the basic responsibilities of his office including giving out information that revolves around climate change.
“The office is in charge of weather and climate change. Thus, it gives out services to communities including farmers and fishermen who rely on whether to do their business,” Kpaka explained.
BRAC, according to MASL Deputy Director-General, provide the resources as they do the technical aspect of the project.
Kpaka also recounted about the occurrence of natural disasters which, he said, had cost many lives in the country.
“Weather has been affecting people drastically and has cost so many lives and properties especially those using water and those doing farming,” he narrated.
“We are dialoguing with the communities to know the type of activities they will engage in to know the weather,” he said.
Kpaka also assured participants that his institution would continue reaching out other communities to convey weather and climate change messages.
Deputy Chairman, Port Loko District Council (PLDC), Paul Idris Kamara also attended the workshop.
Speaking on behalf PLDC, Kamara said his institution was the one supposed to build communities’ capacity on weather and other climate change issues had it got the resources to do so.
“It is because of the effort in weather and climate change that council appreciates BRAC,” Deputy Council Chairman said.