Department of Environment, NODS host Shelter Management Workshop

The Department of Environment (DoE), in collaboration with the National
Office of Disaster Services (NODS), recently hosted a five-day Shelter
Management Workshop for over twenty participants from faith-based
organisations who have received grant funding from the Department of
Environment under the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Enhanced Direct Access
(EDA) Project, along with other interested community members in the
Cashew Hill community.

The objectives of the workshop were to provide disaster response and
shelter management training to climate adaptation, provide stakeholders
with an overview of the shelter registration process and to train and
certify 15-20 persons in shelter management, specifically the members of
the grant awardees’ voluntary shelter management teams.

The week-long workshop at the Cashew Hill Moravian Church featured
presentations from representatives of the DoE, NODS, the Directorate of
Gender Affairs, and the Antigua and Barbuda chapter of the Red Cross.
Other important topics covered during the sessions included
Environmental Social Safeguards, Gender and Complaints Mechanisms.

The workshop achieved one of the goals of the Enhanced Direct Access
(EDA) project titled, “Integrated physical adaptation and community
resilience through an enhanced direct access pilot in the public,
private, and civil society sectors of three Eastern Caribbean small
island developing states.”

The objective of this project is to strengthen institutional capacities
and increase the resilience of at least 5 percent of the population in
the Eastern Caribbean pilot countries to climate variability and change,
of which 50 percent are women, through adaptation in infrastructure,
strengthened buildings and enhanced ecosystem services.
The organisations which benefitted from the workshop included the Bible
Speaks Seventh Day Adventist Church, Tindall Temple Seventh Day
Adventist Church, Steps to Christ Seventh Day Adventist Church, Cashew
Hill Moravian Church, and Wesleyan Holiness Church.