48 BRAC Annual Report 2011
arrange refresher trainings for teachers in the education programme, volunteers in the health programme, and community leaders and members so that they can effectively recall key messages. We will also create a documentary highlighting all activities (before, during, and after) of disaster response, which will reinforce the roles of the BRAC staff. BRAC plans on disseminating this documentary to other disaster prone areas. Considering the importance of popular theatre, we will arrange shows in flood and cyclone prone areas that will influence the community members and raise awareness about disaster management and climate change adaptation processes. With the help of our education programme, we will take initiatives to include disaster management and climate change related issues in the existing school curriculum, and also introduce a rapid reader book with climate change related stories. Grants, technical support and skilled based training for livelihood opportunities will be provided to women in cyclone, flood and drought prone areas of 40 subdistricts. These groups will receive training on operation and maintenance of water and sanitation technologies in improving capacity to manage water and sanitation in times of disaster and make gender friendly water and sanitation points at shelters.
Disaster, Environment and Climate Change
2011 Highlights: Forecasting with indigenous knowledge In 2011, DECC focused primarily on capacity development on disaster risk reduction, both at the institutional and community level. Over 8,000 staff of different BRAC programmes, 50,000 members of the Polli Shomaj (our community empowerment bodies), 40,000 teachers of BRAC’s education programme, and 78,000 community health promoters (shaysthya shebikas) were trained on disaster preparedness, first aid and disaster response. Through these trainings, we gathered indigenous knowledge to create a seasonal calendar, which includes hazard mapping and community response planning for forecasting threats. We were involved in implementing a pilot disaster resilient habitat (DRH) settlement in the southwestern coast using local materials and indigenous knowledge. With the help of BRAC University and the United Nations Development Programme, we constructed 42 DRHs where community members will be able to take shelter during disasters and live during normal times. We targeted 9,000 of 20,000 village organisation leaders from BRAC’s microfinance programme to orient them on
fundamental disaster terminologies and preparedness. We have organised five simulations in the vulnerable and disaster prone areas of Bangladesh, giving priority to cyclone prone areas with support from Bangladesh Red Crescent Society volunteers, and have made preparations to undertake these simulations in the flood prone areas. A memorandum of understanding was signed during the review period to establish effective cooperation between the Regional Integrated Multi Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES) and BRAC on an end to end multi hazard early warning application. It aims to reduce disaster risks in Bangladesh through the application of early warning information at different timescales, specifically for translation of early warning information into impact outlook and response options.