“We are proud to show that even if we are women, we can practice and train people on DRRM and emergency rescues, which are mostly associated as a man’s job. It is a challenge, but if you are capable enough to do what is tasked of you and are properly trained for it, you can still be part of a rescue team. What is really important is that you must always remember that you are there to serve and help your community. Thanks to the five-day DRRM training conducted by Cargill, CAF America and PBSP, we learned new things like how to apply bandage, make rescue plans for emergencies like vehicular accidents, and save people from sinking vessels. We are truly grateful for the training because we can apply what we learned in helping our community especially during accidents and disasters. I can also share what I learned with my neighbors so they can also help others in times of great need. Because of the training, we were also able to form our barangay DRRM council with women as initial members. To date, we already trained 10 members from the barangay council, 10 barangay tanods, and 14 barangay health workers on DRRM. We even won as Best Barangay in Madridejos with the best child-centered DRRM practice.”—CERELA ALOTA DESALES, Barangay Councilor and BDRRMC Operations Section Head, Brgy. Atop-atop, Madridejos, Cebu