CATEGORY:DISASTER TRAINING ------------------------------- Inside Grenada Saturday February 10,2007 ST.GEORGE’S: Shelter Managers on Districts Disaster Committees across the country are expected to benefit from a series of training workshops starting this month and continuing until July. Natasha Sutherland, a qualified Grenadian trainer, says priority will be given to districts with the most shelters. “It is hoped that at the end of those few months we will be able to build the capacity of the shelter managers to effectively manage the shelters they are in charge of” Sutherland said. “We have decided in order to increase our capacity to function effectively we must do continuous training. The districts with the greater number of shelters will be trained first and then we will continue on with those that have the smaller number of shelters”. Many of the buildings used as shelters during Hurricane Ivan were vandalized by the occupants themselves and as a result organizations were no longer interesting in their buildings being used as a shelter. Sutherland says incidents of this nature highlight the importance of shelter management training. “Shelter management is important because before, during or after any disaster, we realize that many persons are displaced. And from our experience with Ivan as we remember with the Deburg building now the South City Plaza”. “We would remember what has happened to that building and many other buildings that have been used during that time. We thought if we want to change the picture that was created back then we would have to train people to effective manage the use of these buildings”. Sutherland is among several persons trained to conduct workshops in shelter management under a special programme supported by USAID and the office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.