Back to home

Wednesday November 7, 2007

Cuban anti-disaster system is “impressive” said Nicaraguan Evangelical delegate

Trinidad Vásquez, MANAGUA, Nicaragua, June 22, 2006

 Unlike other countries in the region, Cuba has a culture of disaster prevention that includes Taxi Heathrow Airport the entire population, according to oen of the Nicaraguan delegates who participated in the Seventh International Congress on Disasters carried out in Havana, Cuba from June 13 -16.

Jose Angel Rodríguez, representative of the Evangelical Pro Denominational Alliance Council of Churches (CEPAD) told ALC that Cuban disaster prevention is  “impressive” because it extends to all 11 million inhabitants.

Knowing about risks in Cuba is like knowing about food, an essential element for life, a reason that explains the culture of risk management in the country, in the face of a threat of hurricanes, tropical storms or droughts, said Rodríguez.

The meeting was attended by 400 delegates from Central America and the Caribbean, including the Nicaraguan ecumenical delegation that included Rodríguez and Carlos Cardenas for CEPAD, Carlos Hernandez of the Lutheran Church; Serigo Rivas of the Inter-Church Center for Social Theological Studies (CIETTS) and other members of the Joint Church Action (ACT).

“The first lesson we obtained from this event is that disasters are latent in any country in America,” said Carlos Cardenas. Therefore it is fundamental to do everything possible to construct a disaster prevention culture.

He said that in order to implement an anti-disaster system, the State’s participation in coordination with institutions from civil society is key and he said that in a dialogue with the Cuban Council of Churches it was agreed than an ACT delegation will be invited to two events on disasters to be held in Guatemala and Honduras.

The capacity to mobilize the anti disaster system to protect the population from the Alberto tropical storm, present in Cuban when the congress was to be inaugurated, was impressive.