Yesterday and Today

The name of project was quite strange.

The way of communication was rather slow, took so much time, following a really old thread.

In the training courses with the participants of disabilities and families, many questions were raised to test the disaster prevention capacity of the local government.

Flood prevention activities were operated and guided by a non-government organization .

No sympathy for such things…

But something has happened when entering the training course organized by Disaster Management Board, then going to the part of mapping, and meeting to make plans and finally drilling, I totally agree. As for my experience, this training method is very interesting and completely fitted with the audiences. I used to be a soldier on the battlefield and I have experienced many years of advisory work. I did not have any difficulty finding that the planning methods of the project are obviously clear in task assignment. Details are as close to a military plan that I had studied and practiced everyday in the past.

Since then, my uncomfortable feeling for projects has gradually disappeared. My participation changed completely, from no particular interest in the project to voluntarily being involved in and trusting in its operation. I have made use of my knowledge for this project that had never been used before in other projects. I actively encourage my partners of Management Board to study hard to complete the program well. At the part of evaluating the drill results of the whole village, I said half-jokingly “The project does not bring any hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese dongs but it has done much more than that“. When the project started, our village leaders and I did not trust it very much. Since it has completed, it can obviously be seen that it has made a lot of changes in my awareness and risk management methods. It has a part in reducing the burden and stress of village leaders, including the Storm and Flood Prevention Management Board of the commune in terms of annual disaster prevention.  They are:

• Operation of Management Board of the flooding risk across the country is close and coherent. Yearly plan can be easily adjusted based on tools and diagrams in the plan appendix;
• Cooperation among members is in a harmonious way. Risk management network is broad and close throughout the countryside;
• Management of flood prevention from the commander to concrete teams has been shared gently and effectively;
• Telecommunication service for operation, coordination and reporting has been given special attention to be faster and better;
• Personnel and media for first aid and rescue have initially met the needs of the village.
• The four on-spot motto is totally clear now.

I talk about this to everyone honestly. Sometimes the fear of losing so much time on something, people may be narrow-minded or too watchful over something, they often lose their friendliness. Or sometimes, they still want to go on the familiar trail to prevent obstacles. I am so sorry that I myself have had such a moment.

Nguyen Vinh, Head of Disaster Management Board of Lap Thuan village, Dai Hong commune, Dai Loc district, Quang Nam province.

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