“Effective communication at all levels of our society is a vital element in disaster preparedness,” said Minister for Health and Medical Services Rosy Akbar.

Government aims to ensure that members of the public know how to protect themselves and others before, during and after a disaster.

These include the young and old, able-bodied or otherwise, and the healthy and otherwise.

Minister for Health and Medical Services Rosy Akbar made those remarks during the re-launch of Get Ready, Disasters Happen campaign.

It was held at the Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management office in Suva on Friday.

The “Get Ready Disasters Happen” campaign is a multi-media initiative that was initially developed and rolled out in 2013 by the Health Ministry, the NDMO and United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) with support from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The campaign for “Prepare” addresses the need for people to assemble their own emergency kits, to know their emergency centre and contacts, to prepare their homes and to know how they would stay informed when faced with a disaster.

One further key element of the ‘prepare’ phase is to ensure that children are fully immunised to protect them against any possible post-disaster outbreaks of disease.

Ms Akbar said when disasters strike people rightly expect their Government to be there to assist.

But she also said that everyone of us also had a responsibility to take steps to protect ourselves, our families and communities; whether living in a city, town or village.

“Effective communication at all levels of our society is a vital element in disaster preparedness and response,” Ms Akbar said.

“The key lessons that we learned from the initial campaign and the experience we gained following TC Winston last year, the campaign materials have been revised.”

Edited by Rusiate Mataika

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