The Trauma Care Society, which has won all round applause for training volunteers to save the life of road accident victims, is gearing up to extend its activities to disaster management.
“Volunteers of the Trauma Care Society have already shown how trained volunteers can save life of victims of road accident. Soon we would have a strong disaster management force consisting of volunteers who have the expertise to mitigate gravity of even natural disasters,” a spokesman for the Society said on Friday.
The Society has selected volunteers who would lead the proposed disaster management force. These volunteers would be trained as trainers at a two-day programme beginning at Kodencherry on Saturday. They have already attended training camps led by Pradeep Kumar, former Superintendent of Police who had played a key role in training programmes of the Society. The training camp at Kodencherry would be led by those who had undergone training in disaster management strategies. Trainers from voluntary agencies such as Sai Baba’s Asram have already reached Kodencherry.
A key official of the State-level disaster management agency of the State government made a shocking confession to a senior representative of the Society when they met in Thiruvananthapuram recently: the official disaster management machinery was inactive and was idling. It was the Revenue Department which had to undertake disaster management whenever an emergency arose. However, its record when major disasters like landslips occurred had been dismal.
All the preparedness that the department had done was to compile information in a book form. An initiative of a former District Collector of Kozhikode, this book gave details such as telephone numbers of emergency services.
Mr. Pradeep Kumar said the training programme at Kodencherry was designed as a major step in grooming a strong and effective disaster management force. Kodencherry being a landslip-prone region was tailor-made for training the volunteers, he said.
