A COVID-19 and disaster related simulation workshop conducted by the Office of Disaster Management in collaboration with International Organization for Migration (IOM) Dominica recently took Place Island. 

Communications Assistant of the project, Maxine Alleyne-Esprit said the exercise went well and is thankful to everyone involved.  

“We are really thankful to the role players, The volunteers particularly Caritas Dominica Emergency Response and the Layou Red Cross group have came through in terms of providing volunteers to be role players of different scenarios during the simulation exercise today,” she stated in a press statement.  

She said the experience has been “quite interesting” and had several scenarios playing out at the community level in Colihaut as part of the evacuation aspect and also in the shelter itself in the Layou Region. 

“The scenarios I think have been instructive for the community disaster management committee and the council in Colihaut in terms of some of the things that could arise and particularly COVID related situations and how they would need to deal with it.” 

Alleyne-Esprit added that the difference in communication was also important in relations to contacting various community shelters managers in times of emergencies.   

“This simulation exercise is really giving an opportunity to highlight some of these things and I think ultimately it will be a very useful exercise for everyone concerned with generous funding from the US Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM). 

The exercise ended with an evaluation as to what are the things that went well and did not as well as  to get recommendations from all participants on ways to improve.  

“As part of this, we are also looking at Cross cutting issues like how do you deal with gender-based violence incidents? How do you deal with people with disabilities? How do you deal with people from different language groups and the elderly and people with different vulnerabilities.” 

IOM is glad to be supporting the office of disaster management and NPO in this exercise.