Just over a year ago I was attending a conference about the fires in Bolivia. After learning about my experience working for the State of California on wildfire matters, I was approached by Indigenous presenters at the conference and asked for help. The request resulted in the forming of an NGO called Friends of Mother Earth (Amigos de la Tierra Madre). For our first project I wrote a grant proposal to establish Community Emergency Response Teams to deal with the increasing number of disasters they’re experiencing in Bolivia. The proposal was funded by the North Carolina chapter of Partners of the Americas. We brought in two experienced CERT trainers, one from FEMA and another from CERT Latin Global headquartered in Santiago, Chile.
During the week of February 23rd we launched Bolivia’s first national Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Train-the-Trainer program. In a single week of intensive training in Cochabamba, we certified 25 trainers representing six departments: Pando, La Paz, Beni, Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz. These trainers are now positioned to establish local CERT teams in their communities, creating a multiplier effect that extends well beyond the initial cohort. Plans include expanding basic CERT training to incorporate preparedness, recovery, mitigation, and adaptation, creating a holistic approach to hazard and disaster reduction.