BRAC Sierra Leone has on Thursday, 5th December 2019, launched its “Building Emergency Preparedness for Resilience Project” at Old Wharf Community, Western Urban and Freetown.
The Project is funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with a strategic aim of capacitating schools and communities to adequately undertake preparation, prevention, mitigation and disaster management measures within their communities.
The event attracted key representatives from the Office of National Security (ONS), Freetown City Council (FCC), School authorities, Pupils and key stakeholders within the Old Wharf Community.
Sheku Alaka Tejan Mansaray, Project Coordinator, while giving an overview maintained that the project is a pilot phase that is currently being implemented in two other countries (Myanmar and Uganda), alongside Sierra Leone.
He spoke on the impact of the project at Portee/Rokupa community, noting that the communities are yet to record a major disaster occurrence since the inception of the project in their community.
Andrew Chikopa, Country Representative, BRAC Sierra Leone, presented the background information about the organization and encouraged residents of the Old Wharf community to own the process, and take advantage of the opportunity by supporting BRAC in enhancing a successful implementation.
He urged the community residents to desist from negative social practices that may lead to the occurrence of major disaster within their communities.
In his keynote address, the Deputy Director of Disaster Management, Sinneh Mansaray, noted that BRAC has been one of the strongest partners supporting the ONS in Disaster Management and Response in Sierra Leone.
He gave a brief orientation on the Disaster Management Cycle and went on to emphasize the importance of multi-sectoral approach in addressing disaster.
Credit: BRAC Communications