The College of Information and Communications Technology conducted a 2-day Seminar-Workshop on Managing Disaster Risks in Communities at the Municipality of Zarraga, Iloilo on April 5-6, 2022.

The said activity primarily aimed to introduce Community-based Approach to Disaster Risk Reduction to communities. Among the identified communities for the first cohort of this seminar-workshop are  6 barangays that are most affected by the adverse effects of disaster events in the area. These barangays are Balud I, Balud II, Balud Lilo-an, Jalaud Sur, Jalaud Norte, and Sigangao. Community representatives with various roles such as Barangay Council Officials, Barangay Secretaries, Barangay Health Workers, Barangay Service Point Officers, Barangay Nutrition Scholars, Barangay Health and Emergency Response Teams, and SK Officials were in attendance together with the Municipal DRRM Office. The Municipal DRRM Office, headed by Arch. Alberto Gimay, and the Municipal Planning and Development Office, headed by Mrs. Jeanne Concepcion, co-facilitated the seminar-workshop.

The program during the first day began with the welcome message from Hon. John H. Tarrosa who gave an inspiring speech and motivated the participants to be attentive and participative. Hon. Tarrosa highlighted milestones in the progress and development of Zarraga as he nears the end of his term and further underscored collaborating with the academe as an enabler for building more resilient communities. Dr. Ma. Beth S. Concepcion, Dean of the College of ICT, gave the opening remarks and outlined the initiatives of the College of ICT. Dr. Concepcion emphasized on the importance of data-driven decision making and how the College of ICT can best position itself as a collaborator through its Extension Project, ICT4D. She also introduced Dr. Reymund B. Flores, JCI Iloilo, Inc. President, as a collaborator and partner in the project and a resource person in the activity and the rest of the team from CICT:, Dr. Frank I. Elijorde (Facilitator), Dr. Cheryll Anne Feliprada (Facilitator), Dr. Regin A. Cabacas (Project Leader & Resource Person), and Mr. Shem Durst Elijah B. Sandig (Activity Leader & Resource Person).

Throughout the 2-day Seminar-Workshop, the resource persons gave lecturettes on primary DRR concepts and conducted group exercises such as 1) Brainstorming Disaster Experience, 2) Hazard Analysis, 3) Vulnerability Analysis, 4) Community Mapping, 5) Stakeholder Analysis, and 6) Problem Analysis on Disaster Data Management. The community representatives shared their experiences and the challenges they encountered in the performance of their various roles and functions in DRR. Most interesting and highly effective practices on raising disaster awareness were particularly noted and participants received direct guidance and support from the resource persons fostered through open and collaborative dialogue as they worked together in the exercises.

All in all, the 2-day seminar-workshop was insightful and generated outputs most useful to the communities and provided deeper understanding of complexity of DRR and will be used to guide the next activities of the ICT4D Extension Project. (WVSU-CICT)