Labuan Bajo, May 2023. Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) Labuan Bajo cooperates with APAD-Indonesia, Yayasan Skala Indonesia, and Disasterchannel.co, This activity is expected to establish relations between governments, LSM, the community and also media workers in an effort to develop preparedness. In the speech delivered at the opening of the training, Chief Executive (Kalakasa) BPBD West Manggarai, Mateus Ngabut said that, in the face of disaster, Community capacity is one of the most important indicators in increasing preparedness, For this reason, BPBD strongly supports efforts to increase citizen capacity through literacy. Because literacy is a very important thing to develop.
This tenth series of activities is a series of activities that were previously held online by Disasterchannel.co - an online media that specifically discusses disaster issues in collaboration with various parties., such as the Association of Indonesian Geologists (IAGI), then the Indonesian Scale and also APAD – Indonesia and APAD-Japan as supporters. This series of training events was held over two days, On the first day, participants were taught disaster preparedness knowledge, potential disasters in the area where they live and participants are taught how to write creatively to disseminate disaster information. On the second day, participants were invited to visit disaster-affected areas in the Tadong Belong Traditional Village area, West Manggarai Regency.
Labuan Bajo is indeed one of the locations chosen, according to Dwi Minarto, from disasterhannel.co, “Labuan Bajo is an important destination, where tourist visits continue to increase from year to year, but on the other hand, Disasters are also a serious threat that needs to be considered early." In line with Dwi, Mateus Ngabut as Mateus Ngabut also put forward efforts to reduce the risk of disaster which needs to be done early, introduction to the threat of disasters in the Labuan Bajo area, carried out as a preparedness effort.
It is hoped that this citizen journalism activity, which will be held close to the ASEAN Summit, can encourage friendly countries to work together to build preparedness in facing disasters.. Because we are all one and brothers in ASEAN, So it is important for friendly countries to also understand the characteristics of cultural beauty, natural wealth as well as natural disasters in Labuan Bajo. "Of course it is hoped that this citizen journalism training will attract the attention of delegations from Asean countries, that the community members in Labuan Bajo, actively involved in efforts to reduce disaster risk in their region," said Faisal. (RN)
