Internship Journal
Internship Site: Center for Preparedness and Recovery
Intern Week 1
Dates: Thursday, 1st March, 2014 and Friday, 14th March, 2014
The week’s goal was to familiarize me with the Center for Preparedness and Recovery. This was through knowing people who work in the mitigation areas of the center and resources accessible by workers. My boss, Mr. Smith, led me to each staff present and described to me the duties assigned to each of the worker. After introductions, Mr. Smith took me around the center’s departments concerned or connected with mitigation. We paid visits to various departments within the center, such as the early warning systems, first aid department, transport and relief supply department, recovery and dispatch department, information and communication department and logistics department. We proceeded to the resource center where Mr. Smith showed me some videos of the documented disasters in last year’s heavy rain season. This gave me a clue of the events that lead to disasters and how they can be mitigated. He directed that, after one, week, they shall be involved in writing recovery report of which I was to be involved. We then took a trip to the resources mobilization center which was located one kilometer, but on the same land that housed the rest of the departments. We met Mrs. Hey who is the director in charge of mobilizing resources. She works with a team of five other members who are involved in receiving and writing proposals to secure funding for Center for Preparedness and Recovery.
We then attended a workshop in the center’s hall in which an expert was lecturing to members of the public about disaster mitigation. The workshop continued for three days and closed on Friday.
Throughout this week, I assisted my supervisor, Mr. Smith together with Mrs. Hey to receive donations from Gates Foundation. Donations and other resources are received throughout the year because of purposes of disaster preparedness. The center stocks durable food staff, tents, bottled water, pain killers, canned food, among other stuff. These are the materials needed in the event of a disaster awaiting other relief efforts. The focus of the center is to avoid victims of disaster spending a night in cold or hungry. This is avoided by issuing the most basic items needed for the next three to six hours. We thanked the donors and proceeded to document the supplies in the IT department. The items were sorted into their respective categories such as food stuff, bedding, medicine and other merchandise. Some of the items were transported to Center for Preparedness and Recovery in States prone to disasters. The center is always prepared for frequent disasters such as heat waves, storms and fire. We also refilled fire extinguisher that were transported together with the other batch of merchandise. We also sorted items and other logistical issues in the manner dictated by disaster recovery cycle. The most importance items were those that would be needed within the next few minutes after a disaster. Mr. Smith left to attend a meeting organized by Red Cross and The United State Army-Division of disaster response for one day. The aim was to update them about the resources they had so far mobilized. He came back after one day and we proceeded with sorting out them items. We noted that it was too late to complete sorting out the donations and transporting them to their preferred centers. This activity was to resume on Monday morning.
