PLDT wireless unit Smart Communications will be conducting an emergency response and management training for the students of University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP) on Saturday, February 24, as part of their initiative to educate youth on disaster preparedness.
"Disaster preparedness has always been an advocacy of Smart Communications, maybe because it’s the nature of our business: communication. And you know, in disaster management, communication is very important, before, during and especially after [a calamity]," Nova Concepcion, the senior manager of Smart community partnerships, said.
The whole-day workshop on Saturday, according to Smart, is a "training of trainers" that aims to equip students with skills to be able to conduct their own preparedness lessons for members of their communities.
The activity is part of the Tropang Ready program, a spin-off of their previous program "Pamilyang Ready, Pamilyang Panalo," which is an initiative of Smart's advocacy for a #SafePH wherein, according to Concepcion, they "employ various telco (telecommunication) solutions and other on-ground activities" to help communities mitigate disaster risks.
Tropang Ready is a nationwide caravan of Smart's Talk N Text (TNT) brand wherein they tour to schools in the Philippines to teach youth and their friends the importance of disaster preparedness.
USTP is one of Smarts’s partner schools in Mindanao for the advocacy.
"It’s a good channel because number one, where else can you find a bottomless of experts and enthusiastic students na may (that have the) capability to share? So they're tech savvy and required sa kanila na mag reach (they are required to reach out) to other communities. So that's the next phase of the Tropang Ready program," Concepcion said.
She added that the Tropang Ready program also aims to turn youth into ambassadors of preparedness in their own communities.
The training of trainers activity, which is the second phase of the program, will be taught by Louie Domingo, the director of Emergency Management Center, and his co-director Tan Palma.
Around 70 USTP students and faculty will be taught by Domingo and Palma on how to prepare for, what tools to use and what to do during typhoons, earthquakes, landslides, and among other calamities.
Among the lessons they will teach the participants are first aid and self-defense techniques, and pointers on how to assemble a "Go Bag" or an "e-Balde," an emergency kit that includes canned food, water, flashlight, batteries, cellphone, umbrella, inflatable lifebuoy, among others which are meant to help an individual or a family to survive in times of calamities.
Concepcion said they are also working on including disaster preparedness in the educational curriculum, adding that the goal of the workshop is to enable the students to conduct trainings in their own communities as part of their school's extension program.
Ramon Isberto, PLDT and Smart public affairs head, for his part, said the youth plays a vital role in disaster preparedness.
"They have the mobility, the skills, the technological know-how - they have what it takes to spread the culture of preparedness," Isberto said.