NEMO, Saint Lucia Ministry of Tourism facilitate CERT training

Saint Lucia: The National Emergency Management Organisation – NEMO, and the Ministry of Tourism will facilitate two five-day Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training programmes for tourism industry stakeholders.

The CERT training programme is designed to empower communities by imparting basic theoretical and practical applications on disaster preparedness and disaster management strategies.

Upon completion of the CERT programme, the participants would have attained new and improved disaster response skill sets ranging from disaster response planning and management best practices in fire safety and coordinating post-disaster medical operations. By inviting community-based public and private sector entities to participate in the CERT training programme, Saint Lucia’s national disaster preparedness and disaster response capacity in the tourism industry will be improved. Expanding local access to disaster management training programmes such as CERT can also alleviate national emergency management systems.

The CERT training programme commences on September 27 and is scheduled to conclude on October 14. The CERT training programme is open to tourism-related enterprises and community groups situated on the island’s east and west coasts. The training will be held at the Fond St Jacques Parish Center in Soufriere for all west coast participants. Training for east coast participants will be held at the Micoud Multipurpose Center.

Funding for the CERT training programme was provided by the Organization of American States.