Lapu-Lapu holds Olympics on disaster risk reduction

CEBU, Philippines — In celebration of the National Disaster Resiliency Month this July, Lapu-Lapu City will hold its second Disaster Risk Reduction Olympics, an interschool competition with regards to disaster preparedness and response. Participants will be all schools within Lapu-Lapu City.

The celebration is in accordance with Executive Order No 29 signed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on June 28 last year renaming the National Disaster Consciousness Month to National Disaster Resilience Month which is to be observed every July.

Elena Berame, Project Development Officer II in the Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) Dep-Ed, said that the olympics is a gauge for the participants’ knowledge and skills regarding DRRM. “The competition is done to test the levels of awareness and preparedness of not only the students, but also the teachers and faculty of all schools in the city.”

The DRRM Olympics is one of the culminating events of the National Disaster Resiliency Month. Elena and her husband, Andy, Local DRR Officer IV in Lapu-Lapu CIty, along with the City Office and NGOs, planned, organized, and coordinated this year and last year’s DRRM Olympics. This is one of the many projects the couple had spearheaded.

Andy and Elena are responsible in strengthening the disaster awareness and preparedness program both in the community as well as in schools. Andy is a DRRM officer in the Local Government Unit while Elena is DRRM coordinator at DepEd.

“When there is a community seminar, he coordinates while I speak and when it is a school training, I am the coordinator and he is the speaker,” Elena elaborates on how well they work even if they come from different sectors.

The pair also shares what they love about each other inside and outside work. “We both have passion and commitment. It’s great to work and to spend time with someone who has the same advocacy as you,” Andy said.

The couple has organized a number of trainings, seminars and meetings that are held around schools and communities in Lapu-Lapu City. The most recent gathering was the Coordination Planning and Consultative Meeting of all School DRRM and Alternate School DRRM Coordinators in the elementary and secondary schools that was held last June 30 at Alta Cebu Resort in Cordova.

They had been working together under DRRM sectors for three years now. Prior to their current positions, the couple was actively volunteering and being immersed in community work, assisting in government community projects such as coastal law enforcements.

One of the most significant experiences they had, according to them, was when they went to Japan for a study visit. “It was a very notable trip because not only did we get to immerse on their culture but we get to learn the best in DRRM practices and preparedness,” Elena stated. One of the highlights during the study visit was observing the Inter-Agency Coordination in Responding Earthquake and Evacuation Camp Management. The seminar was in partnership with JICA and SEEDS Asia.

With every seminar and meeting they impart knowledge and insights to the people in the community. “We prepare 24/7 even after seminars and we do our best to make ourselves available to serve anytime,” Andy stated.

Their mission for the city is for every barangay, school, community and all its constituents to be not just aware, but also to be prepared with knowledge and skills should calamity or disaster arise, to achieve the universal goal of zero casualty. Czar Paulo Dabon (FREEMAN)