Emergency telecommunications course for Turks and Caicos

Monday, October 31, 2005

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CDERA): Participants at a two-day Emergency Telecommunications Training workshop in the Turks and Caicos Islands will have a chance to upgrade their skills in the use of telecommunications equipment and be oriented to emergency communications protocols to be used throughout the Caribbean.

This is the second in a series of 16 training workshops being facilitated by CDERA in collaboration with National Disaster Agencies to strengthen communications support in times of emergency response operations . 

This course focuses on the use of HF and VHF radio communication and satellite telephone communication. It is part of a wider Land-based Search and Rescue Project being implemented by CDERA in all of its 16 member states. It seeks to develop, by 2006, enhanced search and rescue infrastructure at the national and regional levels as well as provide training in search and rescue techniques.

Turks and Caicos has been provided with first responder kits, two satellite telephones (one mobile and one fixed), and a laptop computer to boost its operations in search and rescue. Each first responder kit, which is designed to service six rescuers, contains close to one hundred pieces of equipment that might be needed in a land-based search and rescue operation.

Additional training in the management and operation of all the equipment and in warehousing will complete the implementation of the land-based search and rescue project which is funded by the Government of Japan through the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security which is managed by the United Nations Development Programme.

The workshop will be held October 31 - November 1.

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