Today Spiked had an opportunity to meet the Zimbabwe Information and Communication Technologies (ZICT) Chairman Eng. Jacob Mutisi and he emphasizes that time has come for us not to continue blaming the Government and that we take a leading role.
Eng. Mutisi said during the Cholera outbreak one of the resolutions was the set up a National Emergency Response Team (NERT) who will act when there are cases of national disaster.
He went on to emphasize that among that Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers and the Engineering Council of Zimbabwe they have army personnel who are trained to be leaders in these kind of cases, when the infrastructure has been battered and damaged. He also added that we should also bring in UN and humanitarian organisations like the Red Cross/Red Crescent.
“Now that Cyclone IDAI is upon us as we should urgently address this issue and come up the NERT,” said Eng. Mutisi.
He went on to explain that NERT is a volunteer driven program that brings together hundreds of volunteers nationwide, from a wide spectrum of talents, donate their time and energy assisting in a variety of NERT programs.
“NERT will come up with ways of raising funds and will make sure all donations goes directly to the cause of helping those affected by a disaster situation.” “Furthermore, NERT will also assist in the creation of The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program educates volunteers about disaster preparedness for the hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. The CERT will only be for disaster prone areas,” said Eng. Mutisi