From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi
The Bauchi State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has said that the agency recently trained over 200 stakeholders and teachers on disaster management proficiency from twenty local government areas of state.
The Coordinator of the SEMA, Malam Abubakar Umar, who stated this during a three-day workshop organised for various staff of ministries in the state at the weekend, said the training was in line with NEMA’s effort to enlighten those at local communities on the need to reduce disaster to the barest minimum.
According to the coordinator, “the training programme is meant to enhance the capacity of local communities on methodologies of containing and managing disasters in their various localities.”
The participants, Umar stated, have been exposed to the basic the rudiments on how to manage emergencies such as fire disaster, windstorm, flood, and communal misunderstanding, saying that “most participants are mainly primary school headmasters and social welfare officers at the grassroots level.”
Umar, who is the UNICEF focal person in the state, recalled that headmasters were in the past tagged as deputy village heads, considering their roles in crisis management at the local levels.
He also recalled that the UNICEF in its efforts to reduce the impact of disaster at the grassroots introduced such training two years ago.
Umar expressed optimism that participants had at the end of the workshop become knowledgeable on how to manage disasters in their respective areas.
Also speaking, the state Director of Information, Alhaji Mohammed Inuwa Bello, said the workshop was aimed at empowering men and women who are directly involve in mobilizing and educating the people on the dangers emergencies at the grassroots level.
“This is a train-the-trainer workshop where a few people were trained at the state level to step down to the local government level. We are expecting each of these people representing the local governments to go back and form teams and train others who will really get to the grassroots”, Bello said.
A participant at the workshop, Malam Bala Ibrahim, assured of his desire to spread the knowledge acquired to his colleagues at the grassroots.
Ibrahim described the training as “added feather to their caps” which could positively be implemented in the event of instability in their areas.
