IOM will today begin a series of trainings in Camp Coordination and
Camp Management (CCCM) for improved management of collective
centres in the Dominican Republic – the first of its kind to
be delivered in the country.

The training aims to strengthen management of humanitarian and
government service provision in human settlements following natural
disasters across the country, with a focus on Santiago and Puerto
Plata, two northern provinces most at risk from seismic
activity.

IOM will hold three four-day trainings over three weeks for a
total of 75 Dominican officials responsible for emergency response,
including the management of collective centres.

Participants will include representatives of the Dominican Civil
Defense, Dominican Red Cross, the Centre for Emergency Operations
and Local Committees for Prevention, Mitigation and Response in
Santiago, Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo.

"Displacement due to natural disasters aggravated by poor urban
planning and environmental degradation caused by natural and
man-made factors is a fact of everyday life in many countries in
Latin America. Human and material losses accumulated each year
surpass that of any of recent major disasters, but go unnoticed
because they consist of several scattered catastrophes caused by a
vast array of natural phenomena. Something they all have in common
is that they displace people who must seek shelter and receive
humanitarian assistance," explains IOM Santo Domingo Chief of
Operations Jean-Philippe Antolin.

In addition to the CCCM trainings, IOM has identified and is
evaluating official emergency shelters in Santiago and Puerto
Plata, creating a country-specific collective centre management
toolkit, and pre-positioning life-saving non-food relief item kits
for use during potential future disaster situations.

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake in 2003 in Puerto Plata scale, with
an epicenter 40 miles north of Santiago, caused widespread damage
to schools, roads and other infrastructure.  In 2011, Columbia
University researchers warned that the city of Santiago could
shortly experience a magnitude 8.0 earthquake.

The trainings are being facilitated by IOM as part of an
inter-agency UN initiative led by UNDP to strengthen local capacity
to respond to and manage earthquake-related risk, in coordination
with UNICEF.

The project is funded by the Disaster Preparedness Programme of
the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection
department (DIPECHO), with additional resources from the Spanish
Development Foundation ANESVAD.

For more information, please contact:

Zoë Stopak-Behr

IOM Santo Domingo

Tel: (809) 688 8174

E-mail:  "mailto:zstopak-behr@iom.int">zstopak-behr@iom.int