Red Cross representatives from several countries the region yesterday began a workshop on capacity building as the organisation and its affiliates work on a new strategy to meet the needs of communities.

The sub-regional facilitators training opened yesterday at the Grand Coastal Inn, where it will wrap up on Friday. It is expected to boost the capacity of volunteers to develop a plan to respond based on the feedback from communities.
The areas of training cover a range of topics including health, disaster management, water and sanitation, and hygiene.

One of the facilitators, Tim Murphy from the Belize Red Cross Association, told Stabroek News that the volunteers would be equipped with the right skills to go into communities, speak with the people there and let them identify what they feel are their needs.

From this, he said the specific means of intervention would be better pointed.
“So if a community were experiencing malaria or dengue fever, the programme would be specifically designed to meet those evolving needs,” he said.

Red Cross Guyana Director General Dorothy Fraser later told reporters that as part of the sessions, the group will conduct a practical assessment, targeting North Sophia.

She pointed out that in the implementation of the community programmes the society would have to partnership with other agencies.

The Red Cross works in various communities, assisting in different ways.
However, the new methodology is to better tailor its work to the needs of the communities and the modules for training of the volunteers are designed in such a way that it can be implemented for any community, regardless of the difference in needs.

Red Cross representatives from Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Belize, St Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, the Bahamas and Guyana are participating in the training.