Training Course on “Climate Change, Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Popular Theatre”

                From 11-15 April 2011, five day long residential training on “Climate Change, Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Popular Theatre” was organised for five Nepali partners NGO’s staff at Chetana Kendra Training Center, Banepa, Nepal. Total 14 participants from five NGOs (JCYCN, HRELIC- Nepal, Hoste- Hainse, WCDF and HIMAWANTI) were attended this training. This training is the part of Concern Universal – Bangladesh’s “Capacity Strengthening on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA)” Project funded by Cordaid. Ms. Sabrin Sultana and Mr. Abdul Hamid from Concern Universal-Bangladesh facilitated this training.

Trainee Groups

At the outset of the training, the participants indicated their expectations from the training. They expected to learn the following from the training:

·         Primary concept about Weather, Climate, Climate Change, causes and consequence of climate change, How to combat Climate Change, Climate Change adaptation.

·         Types and concepts of Disaster Risk Reduction

·         The process of Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction

·         National and International policies on climate change

·         Relation between the project and other current DRR and CCA activities being implemented in South Asia (By the Bangladesh, Nepal and Indian Governments or other NGO’s)

·         Popular Theater & it’s brief history

·         Relation between Popular Theater, Climate Change

·         Making of a popular Theater

            The discussion and presentations were interesting; understandable. The training course was mainly covered the issues of climate change, mainstreaming DRR and popular theatre. The major topics of the training were as follows:

1.            Climate Change: Weather, Climate, Climate Change, Atmosphere, Greenhouse Effect, Greenhouse Gases, Countries are the largest GHG emitters

2.            The expected impacts of Climate Change on South Asia: Impacts on livelihoods, Health, Education, men and women

3.            Linkage between Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change

4.            Climate Change Refuge

5.            Climate Change Adaptation and mitigation

6.            Some new concepts about : Carbon Trading, Carbon Credits, Carbon Taxes, Carbon Sinks

7.            National and International agreement, policy, and strategy on Climate Change

8.            Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Cycle of  Disaster Risk Reduction

9.            Difference between mainstreaming  and cross-cut

10.        Mainstreaming DRR and DRR policy

11.        Mainstreaming DRR at organizational level and successful steps of mainstreaming DRR

12.        Developing a Action Plan on implementing Mainstreaming DRR

13.        Popular Theater & it’s brief history

14.        Types & characteristics of Theater

15.        Short briefing on Popular Theater - Types & Characteristics of Theater, Factors of popular theater, Acting, Faith, Folk Culture and Different types of forms

16.        Popular Theater, Culture & Development

17.        Popular Theater, Climate Change and Adaptation

18.        Making of a popular Theater (Steps of making a Popular Theater) -

         (Group formation, Message identification, Way of sending message, strategy to raise the public voice, Story selection method, Character Selection, Sequence,  Selection of costume & Profs, Stage Decoration, Rehearsal & final presentation, Evaluation & Feedback )

19.        Express the conflict & social conflict by the popular theater

20.        Drama and the performer (Cultural Life, Responsibilities of a poplar theater performer, Sense of space, Follow & Observation, Presentation Process                   

21.     Evaluation -  (Discussion within in a group and after stage presentation discussion based on audience opinion)

         For easy & clear understanding, different methods were used in training sessions. Facilitators tried to ensure the active participation of all participants in the training session. Following methods were used: 

·               Lectures

·               Discussions (Groups, pairs and open)

·               Brain storming

·               Peer groups

·               Question & Answer

·               Games

·               Role play

Group Work

Group Discussion

The Strengths of the training:

·         Participatory methods were practiced.

·         Participants’ were very enthusiastic.

·         Learning material was supplied in every session.

·         Class room facilities and environment was friendly.

·         The training programme was well organized.

·         Support facilities were good

·         The facilitators and participants’ relations were very positive for learning.

Evaluation of the training:

After the closing session of training, all participants express their feeling about the training.  They said that they were very happy with the training, they mentioned that the training was good and easy to understand, that the trainers have vast knowledge about the content and that their attitudes were also very friendly. Participants were confident that they can apply the knowledge in their work in future. Although they were very happy with the training content, they also felt that the time allocation of the training could have been longer. They also suggested that examples from all over the world would help their understanding of the material. This suggestion was very helpful to the trainers who tried to use more examples from outside Bangladesh in the later training batches. Participants were also very enthusiastic to undertake the next training under the project and suggested that maybe it would be an advantage to have all of the training in one period.

        Most of the participants enjoyed the session & learned in friendly and joyful environment. The closing sessions of this training course were held on 15^th April. Training course was concluded by a closing statement from Mr. Tilottam Paudel, the President of JCYCN. He thanked and congratulated all participants and also thanked to the facilitators from Concern Universal - Bangladesh for organizing the training courses.

        The training course ended smoothly and purposefully after certificate given ceremony. 

Training Certificate

Meeting with Mr.Ganga Lal Tuladhar, the Honorable Education Minister of Nepal

(An effective advocacy meeting)

On 17^th April 2011 Concern Universal-Bangladesh, together with the six representatives from two Nepali local partner NGOs (Jagriti Child and Youth Concern Nepal and Volunteer Aid Nepal) met with Mr. Ganga Lal Tuladhar, the Education Minister of Nepal.

It was an effective and fruitful advocacy meeting with top level policy maker of Nepal on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change. We proposed to the Education Minister to incorporate DRR and Climate Change issues into children education curriculum. The Minister informed us that he was a student of DRR and really wants to incorporate the DRR and Climate Change issues into their education curriculum. He suggested us to provide him with an appropriate guideline so that he can take initiatives. Local partner NGOs of Nepal are preparing the guideline under guidance of Concern Universal – Bangladesh to be submitted to the Ministry of Education of Nepal by the end of April 2011.

Tough the Education Minister mentioned that part of his academic is from DRR, he was very eager to learn from us about field realities. We informed him about the capacity building project on community managed disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. He was very interested and requested Cordaid and Concern Universal to continue these supports within the South Asia region because of location vulnerability due to climate change.  

Besides the above discussion, The Education Minister also agreed to provide regular supports to the Nepali local partners NGOs on education, DRR and Climate Change.

The meeting took place in the frame of the project “Capacity Strengthening on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation”, funded by Cordaid (Netherlands) working with 67 local NGOs in Bangladesh, India (Assam, Meghalaya and West Bengal) and Nepal.

Reported By :
Abdul Hamid
CU_Bangladesh

Indians need be more prepared for natural calamities: Experts

In this photo taken Tuesday, April 5, 2011, Masahiko Horio, president of Ho...New Delhi: Within a month after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck Japan, India experienced two moderate tremors. Were these warnings for something bigger? If experts are to believed, they were and say Indians need to be more prepared to deal with natural calamities.

"Some of these could also be seen as a precursor for something bigger, considering India's vulnerability to earthquakes because of its location in a high risk seismic zone," N.V.C. Menon, former member of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), said.According to him, it is important to launch an awareness campaign to prepare Indian households to prepare them in responding to natural calamities such as the one that wreaked destruction in Japan.

"We could face massive destruction if a high intensity earthquake strikes India," Menon said, stressing there is the "need for a massive awareness campaign as people here are not clear about the steps needed to reduce the impact of an earthquake."

The government, under the aegis of NDMA, is working to enhance India's preparedness to face an event like that in Japan. However, people should also prepare themselves to deal with an emergency, Menon said. Households in quake-prone areas should prepare emergency kits with candles, medicines, match boxes, important documents and other necessary items so that they can evacuate immediately in the event of an earthquake. Studies have shown that more than 60 percent of India is vulnerable to earthquakes and most of the deaths during a quake are caused by the collapse of buildings.

According to geographical data, Kashmir, Punjab, the western and central Himalayas, the northeastern region and the Rann of Kutch fall under the Zone 5 category, referred to as the Very High Damage Risk Zone. "Northeastern states like Assam and Meghalaya and cities like Shimla and Delhi are sitting on the brink of a disaster," V.K. Sharma, professor of disaster management at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, told IANS.  "With about 685 slums and congested localities in the old city with maximum number of unsafe buildings, Delhi could collapse in the event of a high intensity earthquake," warned Sharma. More than 50 percent of Shimla could also collapse, he added.

The biggest problem, according to Sharma, lies in the non-adherence of the prescribed building codes by private builders while erecting any new structure. The National Building Codes of India contains stipulations for fire safety requirements, materials to be used, structural design and construction, including safety and building and plumbing services.

In cities maintained by municipal corporations it is expected that all building codes are followed for new constructions. "But very often the builders and contractors violate the codes," Menon said.

This was the reason for the collapse of the buildings in Ahmedabad and Bhuj in Gujarat during the 2002 earthquake even though they were almost 480 km away from the epicentre of earthquake, he asserted.

The condition is least encouraging in rural areas and in those urban areas where private constructors are hired for building purposes. "In these cases, people employ local constructors who have no engineering background and are not aware of any code," said the expert. Menon advised a few things that can be done by households to increase the earthquake resistance of existing buildings.

"For existing buildings, rapid visual screening by trained civil engineers can help find its quake resistance capacity," he said.

The study of the soil type and the possibility of sand liquifaction that can happen during quake vibrations should also done, the expert suggested.

Source:

IANS - 2011-04-19 09:40:00

38 Indian cities fall in moderate to high risk seismic zones

Top metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata fall under moderate to high risk seismic zones of the country, the National Disaster Management Authority has said.

“Earthquake is a major issue of concern. Over 58.6 per cent of land in India is highly vulnerable to earthquakes and 38 cities fall under moderate to high risk seismic zones,” NDMA Vice Chairman Shashidhar Reddy told PTI.

Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Greater Mumbai, Kochi, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, Ahmedabad, Dehradun are some of the cities falling in the vulnerability zone.

Noting that a large number of buildings constructed in the past have not been made earthquake resistant, he said, “NDMA is ensuring that the new constructions that come up are disaster resistant and the old buildings are retrofitted.”

The NDMA is training a large number of architects, engineers and masons to make sure that any new construction that comes up is earthquake resistant.

“To have a topography study, a team of experts from six IITs led by IIT-Mumbai is working together to classify buildings in 10 different types, to make all buildings earthquake resistant,” he said.

A senior NDMA official said that 235 districts fall in the seismic zones IV and V.

“We need to take into consideration structural safety, mitigation and preparedness and immediate response. Lifeline buildings and telephone booths need to be retrofitted and critical installations in zone IV areas should not be allowed,” the official said.

He said in spite of Japan being highly equipped and fully prepared, when disaster struck, the country was devastated.

“It reminds us of our vulnerability. Disaster management is not a one-day job. We have already done mistakes in not closely monitoring our constructions in the past.”

Since making all buildings earthquake resistant is a state subject, NDMA has already written to almost all the states to ensure safe construction as per disaster management guidelines.

However, a senior official rued “No substantial response has been received so far.”

Collected From,

THE HINDU,New Delhi, April 10, 2011

Report on Divisional level sharing workshop- Zilla Parishad, Chittagong

On April 12, 2011 Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), one of the partner NGOs of Concern Universal organized a Divisional level sharing workshop in Chittagong Zilla Parishad, Chittagong.  It was a part of the activities of Capacity strengthening on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation project of Concern Universal.

           A total 105 participants attended in this workshop.  Additional Divisional Commissioner of Chittagong Division was the chief guest, Deputy Director of Fire Service & Civil Defiance of Chittagong and Director of Local Government in Chittagong Division was the Special guest and Director of Chittagong Medical College and Hospital was the president in this workshop. Others participants were ED of different NGOs, representatives of NGOs, CUB representatives, representatives from Scouts, Red-Crescent, representatives from Educational & Medical Institution, representatives from Chittagong City Corporation, CDA, WASA, District level officials in Chittagong Division, Ms, Khaleda Begum, Team Leader of YPSA was moderator in this program.

At the beginning of the workshop, moderator Ms, Khaleda Begum presented welcome speech on behalf of Young Power in Social Action (YPSA). Ms. Kanika Chakraborty delivered welcome message on behalf of Concern Universal – Bangladesh. Mr. Masud Rana, Assistant Project Manager of CUB presented a documentary on different types of hazard of Chittagong division. After that, he discussed total project activities by showing slides in power point. Climate is changing day by day, so we ought to adopt to the situation. This is the platform to share personal opinion how to adopt with the change and what should we do to reduce the disaster risk- his requested was to the audience.

After this session participants contributed to open discussion. The followings are participants' opinion in open discussion:

• At first one has to know about the hazards and disaster, and consequently have the responsibility to inform it to others.
• We are not following the rule of building code, we ought to follow it.
• We should change our medical system with climate change.
• We should work together for reducing disaster risk.
• We need to build strong community or the strength of community
• It is very important to inform every body for awareness building.
• We can reduce the risk if we all try together. 

        Mr. Mostafizur Rahman, Director of Chittagong Medical College and Hospital & president of this workshop, articulated that from this workshop we learnt a lot, and now we need to replicate it to our organization and our community. We need to create cultivatable land and plantation areas. We should maintain building code. Finally he thanked all for active participation before concluding the workshop.

Reported by,
Masud Rana
CU-Bangladesh

Report of the Training at Chittagong-7-11 April, 2011

Concern Universal–Bangladesh

Report of the Training on Climate Change, Mainstreaming DRR and Popular theatre:

Concern Universal–Bangladesh successfully organized a 5-day long residential training session on climate change, Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Popular Theatre for its 17 partner NGOs. This training was the part of the CUB’s capacity building project and was funded by CORD AID.

This training was held between 07^th to 11^th  April, 2011 at YPSA training centre, in Chittagong. 28 participants form 17 partner organizations joined in this training course. The course was jointly facilitated by the Concern Universal – Bangladesh and its technical allies, PASS (Participatory Advancement Social Service).

Reported by,

Masud Rana

No steroid cream on face without prescriptions, says dermatologists

       Since last twenty-five-years Sucharita Sanyal had been using a common skin cream for her pimples but they turned bigger, spread all over her face and started bleeding. By the time she realized and stopped using the ointment it aggravated the rashes even further. Her condition dramatically, though temporarily, would improve if she had applied that cream again. But it would turn horrible the moment she had stopped using the cream. Her condition was eventually diagnosed as Topical Steroid Damaged Face (TSDF) which is triggered by continuous use of strong topical steroids on face. Indiscriminate uses of such creams have resulted in a large no of  people in Kolkata and surrounding areas suffering from this ailment, which is not fatal but can’t be cured easily.
A study conducted by the Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venerologists and Leprologists (IADVL), a 6500 member strong organization, in 12 Indian cities reveal some disturbing facts. The survey was conducted in various centers in Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Lucknow, Baroda, Pune, Udaipur, Dibrugarh, Aligarh and Coimbatore. The study has been published in Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology (March-April 2011, Vol 77 Issue 2, pp 160-166) . It showed that most patients had used steroid-laden ointments like Betnovate C and N, Tenovate, Lobate, Melacare or Quadriderm which are available without any prescription. "In most of the cases these medicines are wrongly used to treat dark patches on face or to cure pimples. These medicines have a high steroid content that may turn the skin thinner, give rise to steroid dependence, pimples or rashes for which people might have been using them actually aggravate. Other serious complications like hirsutism (unwanted hair growth on face in females), perioral dermatitis, rosacea etc can also develop.  The side-effects could even be systemic. Unfortunately, these creams and ointments are available over the counters without any prescription by any specialists in India, which is not the case anywhere else in the world," said Koushik Lahiri, consultant dermatologist and
a senior member of the IADVL.

Dr. Arijit Coondoo and Dr. Saumya Panda,  senior dermatologists of Kolkata were also associated with Dr. Koushik Lahiri in this study.The association plans to approach the union health ministry and the department of pharmacy to try and impose restrictions on the sale of creams and ointments that contain potent steroids. Experts, however, argued that they had nothing against steroids that were essential for treating several
skin ailments. A proper dose prescribed by dermatologists is beneficial. "But few choose to seek advise before applying these ointments which are meant for diseases like eczema and psoriasis and need to be used in a controlled way. These tubes are sold in millions and since they come under the umbrella of DPCO (Drug Price control order) they are available at a throwaway price. So, the misuse becomes even more rampant," explained Lahiri.

Since drug rules prohibit over-the-counter sale of potent topical steroids internationally, this entity is virtually unknown in developed countries and naturally there is no prescribed treatment for this problem. "We have been groping in the dark and have been forced to devise our own treatment regime based on experience. Generally, we taper off the ointments rather than taking them off in a go for that leads to withdrawal effects on the skin. It is similar to the de-addiction or rehabilitation programme that drug addicts go through. But the treatment norms are still evolving," added Lahiri. The IADVL will launch a public awareness campaign in all the states of the country to keep people away from over-the-counter purchase of skin ointments  containing potent steroid. "It could be difficult unless we have a law to fall back on but we must start the campaign for the sake of the millions who are falling prey to TSDF due to their ignorance," said Lahiri.

Reported By,

Dr. Aniruddha Dey, PRISM