| Title: | Puerto Rico, From Response to Recovery: Resilience Hub Model | |
| Day and time: | (22) Viernes - Friday - 22 - 10:00 - 10:20 | |
| Presenter: | Jeronimo Candela | |
| Organization: | Mercy Corps | |
| Eje Temático: Thematic Area: |
Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience | |
| Download presentation: | 22. Viernes 10_00 - 10_20 Mercy Corps.pptx (33.01 MiB) | |
| Description: | In addition to addressing immediate emergency response and relief needs following Hurricane María in 2017, Mercy Corps has worked with communities and civil society across Puerto Rico to understand opportunities to rebuild and prepare better. Learning from our global resilience work, Mercy Corps conceptualized a Community Resilience Hub approach within this post-disaster recovery context. In alignment with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction Priorities 1, 3, and 4, Mercy Corps is partnering with fifteen active community-based organizations to provide trainings, tools, and support to transform their community centers into Community Resilience Hubs. These community centers already serve as key gathering spaces, aid distribution sites, community event venues, and information points. Through their partnership with Mercy Corps, these community-based organizations will be enabled to operate as Resilience Hubs, well-positioned as critical emergency preparedness and response resource points, promoting community risk reduction, social cohesion and resilience-building opportunities. The Resilience Hubs will be equipped with off-grid solar energy, water purification systems, and satellite communication, which will help to ensure critical community needs are met during an emergency and in the first phases of recovery. On-site community gardens and agricultural resources will support smallholder farmers—who are often among the most severely impacted by hazards—to recover lost supplies, seeds, and crops. The hubs will offer training and information to community members on contextualized risk reduction strategies and best practice re-construction information. Finally, in alignment with SFDRR Priority 2, these Community Resilience Hubs will serve as meaningful points of communication and coordination between local communities and state and federal emergency actors. Mercy Corps is further building community disaster risk reduction capacity through the provision of and training on essential disaster preparedness, mitigation, and response equipment and supplies. In addition to first aid kits and search and rescue equipment, Mercy Corps has plans to provide drones (along with the necessary trainings to operate them professionally). These specialized machines have the capacity to efficiently perform critical tasks as a disaster unfolds, including expediting search and rescue operations as well as damage assessment. |
| Return to list |