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The “Disaster-Safe Welfare Communities”  were born in Kobe out of the lessons learned from the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Kobe City is continuing to develop this initiative. The Kobe City Fire Bureau is working with the Kobe International Center for Cooperation and Communication to spread the message of the “Disaster-Safe Welfare Communities” to the rest of the world through a JICA training course under the “Telling lessons learned from the earthquake to the world” project.

 

■　“Disaster-Safe Welfare Communities”

Disaster-Safe Welfare Communities are communities where residents, businesses and the government work together day-to-day to build cooperative links amongst all three groups. They aim to develop a community where its residents can live safely and securely, and they proactively carry out disaster prevention and welfare activities. Currently the city is split into 191 different communities. As they carry out cooperative activities on a day-to-day basis, it is anticipated that residents and businesses etc. of these communities will work together area-wide should a natural disaster occur.

 

■　Purpose of the traning course

The course is aimed at administrative officials from the central and local governments of a variety of countries who are responsible for the promotion of community disaster prevention activities and the establishment of independent, resident-focused disaster prevention organisations. The participants will experience the drills and other activities of Disaster-Safe Welfare Communities, and learn about the concepts of self help and mutual help by exchanging ideas about the setup and management of BOKOMI. The aim of the course is for the participants to take what they have learned in order to improve the natural disaster preparedness of the communities in their respective countries upon their return.

 

■　Main contents of training

(1) Lectures: On topics such as Disaster-Safe Welfare Communities, disaster prevention education in Kobe, spreading knowledge about disaster prevention through the setup of BOKOMI in other countries, and others

(2) Exercises: Presentation session of job reports (reports on the disaster prevention situation in each country), setup of mock BOKOMIs for each participant’s country, creation and presentation of action plans for when participants return home

(3) Visits within Kobe: To Disaster-Safe Welfare Communities, FM WaiWai (Community radio station in Kobe’s Nagata Ward), and others 

 

■　Period of the course

39 days, from Tuesday, 23^rd June to Friday, 31^st July 2015

(A courtesy call by the trainees to the Mayor of Kobe is planned from 4:30pm on Wednesday 29^th July)

 

■　Number and nationalities of trainees

 23 people from 17 countries

[Armenia (1), Brazil (2), Chile(2), Fiji(1), Grenada(1), India(1), Jamaica(1), Kazakhstan(3), Kiribati(1), Moldova(1), Palau(1), Philippines(2), Saint Lucia(1), Macedonia(1), Timor-Leste(1), Venezuela(1), Cameroon(2)]

 

[Pictures from last year’s training]

 

<Contact>　Fire Prevention Division, Fire Prevention Department, Fire Bureau, City of Kobe　

TEL: 078-325-8510     E-mail:fb_yobo@office.city.kobe.lg.jp

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