This week the Nicaraguan Red Cross conducted a training with their staff and volunteers in organizing and operating Emergency Operations Centres. The workshop is conducted by Disaster Management experts mobilized by the IFRC Reference Centre for Institutional Disaster Preparedness (CREPD) and the Canadian Red Cross, providing participants with learning through instruction and practice during a simulated emergency.
This activity is undertaken as part of the Capacity Building for Emergency Response in the Americas (CERA) initiative, a regional program co-funded by the Canadian Government and the Canadian Red Cross aimed at strengthening the capacities of five Red Cross National Societies in the Americas -Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and Nicaragua - to prepare for and respond to local, regional and national emergencies in order to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity.
The Government of Canada also provided funded to the Nicaraguan Red Cross for a new National Emergency Operations Centre in 2013 to improve its disaster response operations.