FUNDED BY THE NORWEGIAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS SUPPORTED BY THE NORWEGIAN RED CROSS (US$169,950.00)

This project aimed to identify and assess physical needs for disaster risk reduction in the rural south and in urban Belize City. The project worked with 14 communities in the Stann Creek and Toledo Districts and with the community of Jane Usher Boulevard. Besides updating Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments (VCA) and Community Plans, the intervention brought integration of the individual community plans into joint plans for adjoining communities and/or communities sharing commonalities.

In Belize City the project worked with existing Government, NGOs, and civil society stakeholders already established within the city area selected to bring about sustainable community participation in DRR activities via VCA, community planning and the Protected Schools elements. The project utilized the long standing experience of using these tools in rural settings to test their efficiency in urban settings, and to further develop additions to these tools as well as develop a process that could be replicated for further efforts in the country. The human and organizational experience and capacity of the Belize Red Cross National Society was also dramatically enhanced.

CDRT’s in 14 communities in the southern districts of Stann Creek and Toledo were reactivated. EOC’s of BRC HQ and the 2 southern district branches of Stann Creek and Toledo were activated and on standby for two potential disaster events. The “Protected Schools Program” was implemented, which provides classroom materials on personal security, site hazard evaluation, disaster plans, evacuation, self-worth, first aid, and disaster brigade development among others. Five brigades; First Aid, Evacuation and Temporary Shelter, Fire Safety, General Safety, and Psycho-Social were established and trained in each of the 4 schools. Students, teachers and parents were involved in the development of these brigades and 235 students benefited.

Today, the Belize Red Cross continue the implementation of the disaster preparedness and risk reduction program in 14 urban and urban/rural communities. Through VCAs the communities learn to identify the vulnerabilities that exist in their communities, the risks they are exposed to and are given the opportunities to turn these vulnerabilities to capacities, thus strengthening their resilience to the impacts of disasters.