A renewed push is underway to broaden participation in disaster preparedness efforts, with officials urging greater involvement of young people and people with disabilities while strengthening communication systems ahead of emergencies.
The appeal was made during the launch of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season at the Department of Emergency Management on Monday.
Minister of Home Affairs and Information Gregory Nicholls called for greater participation in training programmes aimed at improving support for people with disabilities during emergencies, noting that trained personnel may themselves be affected in a disaster.
“We’re going to ask those students from the University of the West Indies, the Barbados Community College, the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology, as part of the Give Back programme to respond to the training, because that is the best way to give back to your community.”
Selwyn Brooks, liaison officer with responsibility for District Emergency Organisations, said work is already underway to address gaps identified in shelter operations and communication.
He explained: “The question that was raised that came up at the conference in terms of when persons are going into a shelter, if the shelter warden and his or her team was capable of effectively communicating with persons with disabilities, it was identified as a gap”.
Brooks added that the concern has since been shared with key institutions, with training initiatives already underway.
“That information was shared not only with the Ministry of Education but with the Council of the Disabled, and there were a number of training initiatives that have actually started, so that we can, together with also members of the District Emergency Organisation, arm them with not only sign language.”
He noted that the objective is to better equip responders to identify and respond to different needs during emergencies, both in shelters and during community assessments.
“The whole concept of the training is to identify persons with the different types of disabilities, and how we can service their needs when not only when they come to a shelter, but when we are doing the vulnerability assessment in the various communities.”
Officials stressed that disaster preparedness must involve wider public participation, particularly as Barbados faces multiple hazards, including hurricanes, earthquakes, bushfires and infrastructure-related emergencies.
The minister said: “We want more people to volunteer. We want to be able to populate all of these emergency districts with a core of people in all 30 of them to make sure that in each District Emergency Organization that we have enough people to respond to at any emergency”.
Emergency response cannot rest solely on trained professionals, but must include broader civic involvement, Nicholls added.
“This auxiliary court to support them when they’re out there is also necessary, and that helps the society get back together and be able to save some lives.”
He also confirmed that vulnerability mapping is being strengthened to ensure elderly and disabled residents are identified ahead of any disaster, particularly those living alone or without immediate family support.
“We’re working with the district emergency organizations to identify the vulnerable people in the community, we will be making more and more of that to supplement, because we need to identify those persons with disabilities and the elderly, and persons who might not be able to get out of their homes, especially elderly living alone, far away from their children…and making sure that we can have information about them and being able to get them to a place of safety in the event.”
(LG)
The post Drive on for greater youth, disability inclusion in disaster planning appeared first on Barbados Today.
