Thailand - IOM’s mission in Thailand has completed an intensive five-day course on camp and collective centre management as part of a nationwide project to help Thais to be better prepared when the next natural disaster strikes.

A group of 42 participants from the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM), Thai Red Cross and civil society partners took part in the training, which followed two introductory sessions for 81 officials in early September. They looked at camp lifecycles, legal frameworks, protection, standards and management.

The project is a part of an OFDA / USAID-funded programme: “Capacity Building towards Resilience, Reducing Risks of Population Displacement in Thailand”. The courses are conducted in Thai, with Thai training materials produced under the framework of the programme.

They aim to train Thai government disaster management officials in camp coordination and camp management (CCCM) in natural disasters, train trainers for provincial programmes and produce local training materials.

IOM Thailand is now moving into the second phase of the project, supporting the DDPM as trainers fan out across some of the most hazard-prone areas of the country for ten regional training sessions. The project will run through April of 2014, by which time it will have trained over 400 Thai personnel.

“We know that most lives are saved in the first 24 hours after a disaster,” said Jeff Labovitz, IOM’s Chief of Mission in Thailand. “And most lives are saved not by international rescuers, but by local people. That’s why it is crucial to help people get organized as soon as disasters hit.”

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM7qetRaTKQ&feature=youtu.be  for an example of the training materials.

For more information please contact

Joe Lowry
IOM ROAP in Bangkok
Email: jlowry@iom.int
Tel. +66 81 870 8081