WVI Collaborates with Village Volunteers to Socialize Disaster Risk Reduction

To increase the community's knowledge capacity related to disaster risk reduction, Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) Lombok Earthquake Emergency Response collaborates with members of the Village Disaster Preparedness Team (VDPT) to conduct dissemination in 30 sub-villages located in Sembalun District, East Lombok. This activity focuses on providing information to the community regarding prevention and follow-up activities when a disaster occurs.

Wida, a new member of the TSBD in Sembalun Bumbung Village, said that she appreciated the activities carried out by WVI. She said, by involving VDPT members as facilitators in the socialization was an opportunity to introduce this organization to the community.

"We have felt a lot of changes after mentoring, especially as a new member myself also received a lot of training from WVI because previously we only joined with senior VDPT members. I also just found out that there is knowledge of disaster. This is my new experience with WVI," said Wida.

Not only the VDPT members feel the impact of this activity, but the community also feels it. Jun, who every time participates in WVI's activities, feels that this activity is a new activity that he experienced while in his village. Even though he is disabled, Jun admits that he wants to continue studying.

“I am happy and would like to thank WVI. Not only providing physical assistance but the socialization of disaster risk reduction activities in the community yesterday was also important to me because this is the first time I have learned how the community and I can understand how to manage disaster risk. This activity was only carried out in our village after WVI came down and invited VDPT members to participate," said Jun.

The activity which lasted for one day focused on disaster risk reduction materials. The training was related to a basic introduction to First Aid Kits and how to carry out disaster simulations.

Through this outreach activity, people can increase their knowledge. Not only for oneself, but it can be consumed by the whole family and the surrounding community who do not know about disasters.

Written by: Siluh Puspita, Lombok Earthquake Response Staff Wahana Visi Indonesia