District Development Commissioner (DDC) Shopian, Mohammad Aijaz AsadThursday inaugurated a 5-day long awareness programme on disaster preparedness at Mini Secretariat Arhama Shopian.The Programme was attended by ADC Shopian Parveez Sajad, ACR Shopian Shafique Choudhary CEO, ACD, CPO, Executive Engineers of R&B, PHE, Flood Control, PDD and the community members besides 200 volunteers from across the district.DC Shopian while addressing the gathering said that Jammu and Kashmir is prone to multiple natural disasters, including earthquakes, floods, landslides, avalanches, high-velocity winds and snow storms. “It is paramount that youth from the community learn basic life-saving skills as the community is always the first responder in any disaster” he added.He further said that these volunteers will be provided rigorous disaster preparedness training particularly related to floods besides being equipped with individual basic rescue equipment kits.DDC implored the interested youth to approach to Deputy Commissioner’s office and enlist their names for the voluntary service and get advanced training.
Speaking on the occasion, instructors from SDRF J&K said that the areas which are prone to floods have been identified for conducting the awareness and training.They further said that we are trying to reach out to all vulnerable communities and improve their capacity to face any lurking disaster. It was given that during the training, the youth will be imparted with basic First Aid training and hands-on training in Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and will be taught how to handle casualties, drowning cases, injured persons with severe bleeding, burns, spinal injuries, deep wounds, fractures, cases involving choking, animal and snake bites.The trainers will also teach them the procedure of preparing make-shift stretchers, by using the locally available material, like blankets & sticks, making various knots, Search & Rescue procedures. The trainers will also teach the volunteers how to extinguish a fire if no extinguishers are available.The training programme stretched over a period of five days involves a kaleidoscope of activities ranging from Expert lectures to Experience sharing by 2014 Flood rescuers to Mock drills in Colleges and schools.