Aim of the program

In here the main objectives are to make a disaster management plan to each village which are under the SRTAC project and make a powerful young village team who can face natural disasters very successfully and help their villages more actively at such situations.

Ultimate results are to overcome the overlapping of disaster risk reduction programs conducting by the other organizations in different occasions in the villages and strengthen the resilience of the community to face future disasters. So the SRTAC supposed to conduct the disaster risk reduction programs by few steps to reach their ultimate result.

New structure of the disaster management committee

At the beginning, the disaster management committees were being reformed. There were 5 Disaster management committees in each village which had been established under the Disaster Management Centre, Sarvodaya and other organizations. All discussed and were reformed in to a one committee. It becomes the one and only responsible committee, which can be acted legally under the government certification in a village regarding the disaster management activities. The 6 sub committees in the main committee were presented their responsibilities. All sub committees were appointed for the different tasks.

1. Early warning dissemination
2. search, rescue and evacuation
3. Refugee camp and aid management
4. Health and first aid
5. Drinking water, sanitation and removal of corpses
6. Patrol, vigilance and coordination

All sub committees proposed the essential equipments they want to engage in their own tasks. Then the list was sent to the Disaster Management centre for the approval. DMC has decided to release those equipments to the committee members after a proper training series about the way of using those equipments.

Disaster Management plan

Then all committee members, officers of Disaster Management Center and other responsible officers started to make the disaster management plan to avoid the repetition and overlapping of future programs in each village by using the data, collected from each village. As Madilla already had a disaster management plan, that plan was being updated. In here all the villagers contributed very curiously and actively to reach the success of their village plan. After the presentation of the village plan to all participants, they finalized and send it to the GA for the approval.

First aid training program

As the second step, SRTAC attempted to energize the committee by giving a training series to the members. As a result SRTAC conducted a first aid training programs to build the capacity in all participants who were nearly 70 people in each program. They were on 7^th, 8^th, 9^th July in Andaragasyaya and 10^th, 11^th, 12^th July in Madilla. The training programs were conducted by the cooperation of St. Johns Institute and Disaster Management Centre. They gave a special training to the participants, how to face in an accident and to give an urgent treatment before go to the hospital. Also they introduced the first aid equipments which they can use in such a situation.

Andaragasyaya first aid training was conducted in Andaragasyaya Small Fisheries Community hall and about 63 people including Grama Niladari, District DMC coordinator, Sarvodaya District coordinator, Sarvodaya divisional coordinator, SRTAC project manager and a St. Johns officer participated to the program. There were 45 committee members from different ages to have the training.

Madilla first aid training was conducted in the Marakolliya Sri Vishuddharamaya Viharaya with the participation of 68 people. There were Grama Niladhari, 8 DMC officers including District DMC Coordinator, 8 sarvodaya officers including District Coordinator and Divisional Coordinator, 2 St. Johns officers, a project manager and 45 committee members.

Fire fighting program

According to the program series, then 2 fire fighting programs were held alone in Andaragasyaya and Madilla on 10^th, 13^th July. Andaragasyaya program was held in Andaragasyaya small fisheries community hall with the participation of 46 people including Grama Niladhari, 6 DMC officers, 4 Sarvodaya officers and 35 committee members. The program in Madilla was in Marakolliya Sri Visuddharama Viharaya. Grama Niladhari, 5 DMC officers, 6 Sarvodaya officers, and 32 committee members were participated. Altogether there were 44 participants. Committee members were selected as the role they had played in the previous first aid training. They have given chance for young, energetic, active members as this team is going to be the best village team who has to take part in the forthcoming disaster situations. In here they trained the members, how to use the fire fighting equipments. Also in this training they aimed to make an outstanding leadership among the villagers in various situations.

Leadership, Search and rescue program

After the fire training, the best performed young people were selected as the spirit of a team and they were selected for the final most important training session. Then there were one day leadership training program on 20^th and two days search and rescue program on 21^st, 22^nd. Leadership training was held in Sarvodaya district centre, Hambantota and 58 people were participated including District DMC coordinator, 7 other DMC officers, Sarvodaya District coordinator, 9 other sarvodaya officers, and 35 committee members. The search and rescue program was conducted in Weerawila air force camp with the participation of 64 people including District DMC coordinator, 15 other DMC officers, sarvodaya district coordinator, 9 other sarvodaya officers, SRTAC project manager and 35 committee members.