NEMO, UNICEF Partner to Strengthen Belize’s Emergency Shelters

Belize’s emergency shelter system is receiving support through a partnership between the National Emergency Management Organization, NEMO, and UNICEF aimed at improving disaster preparedness and protecting vulnerable families. At a showcase today, the agencies, along with the University of Belize, highlighted new tools, policies and training initiatives designed to strengthen shelter readiness before, during and after emergencies.  Minister of Public Service, Disaster Risk Management and Enterprise, Henry Charles Usher, outlined the three main areas being targeted through the investment.

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Disaster Risk Management: “Number one is an investment in the infrastructure, meaning that we are doing different refurbishing, upgrading of shelters. The second one is an investment in people. We have training ongoing right now for our public officers in shelter management. Too often we ask public officers to be at these shelters but we don’t give them the proper training to manage the shelters. And then number three, the third investment is in innovation, in technology. We have a shelter management system that is now online, a shelter management system that is accessible to decision makers and part of it is accessible to the public as well so that they know where the shelters are. So these three areas, investment in infrastructure, investment in people and investment in technology. When it comes to disaster risk management, it’s always a priority issue. What are you going to prioritize? Are we going to prioritize rebuilding the shelters? Are we’re going to prioritize recovery which we have to do if there is a natural hazard occurring. But most importantly, and what all the studies show is that we have to build resilience in these communities. And this is part about building resilience. In addition to these initiatives, we are also doing community training for community emergency response teams so that they can be the first responders. But being able to know, number one, what the plan is, where your shelter might be, this helps to build resilience, it helps planning. And as we continue to invest in early warning systems, it gives people enough time so that they can be able to protect themselves and protect property.”

The partnership places particular attention on children, families and vulnerable populations who may need additional support during a disaster. Beyond preparing shelters to receive residents, the initiative seeks to improve how the emergency management system responds to their needs. Usher explained how the project will cater to children and persons with disabilities.

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Disaster Risk Management:“This is also part of what the technology is able to demonstrate is that we do have some shelters that we have available for persons with vulnerabilities. We don’t have all of them that have those different features in place but our goal is to build those as much as possible so we can make sure that the vulnerable persons, you mentioned children, senior persons, persons with disabilities, that they’re also able to go to the shelter and not have any issues. In terms of we had a partner in the building of the shelter management technology and in doing some of the investments in infrastructure, that is UNICEF and we thank them for partnering with us. We also are trying to access additional funds through different funding agencies. In terms of the budget that was approved for this fiscal year for shelter improvement, it was $900,000.” 

The event was held under the theme “Innovate. Improve. Invest. – A Disaster Risk Reduction Experience.”/