Page 16 - IB April 2021

Community Developer at
HEART

Tevita Ravumaidama – Executive Director
Partners in Community Development Fiji

Having seen firsthand the utter devastation disasters like the “We noted during our damage assessments that communities
Aitape tsunami inflicted on rural communities of Papua New Guin- that have undergone training and have formed disaster committees
ea in 1998, Tevita Ravumaidama insists on incorporating disaster had quick turnaround,” says Tevita.
risk management (DRM) training in all community projects he is in- “They have been trained. They know what to do. Because of the
volved in these days. training, the disaster committee was able to advise their own com-
Irrespective of whether the project is developmental or humani- munity on when to start preparing, where to move and what to do.
tarian in nature, the long-time community development leader “When disaster arrives, everybody is in the right place. The elder-
and executive director of Partners in Community Development lies and the disabled have been moved to the community’s evacua-
Fiji (PCDF) knows that disaster preparedness, and DRM training in tion centre, with everyone else.”
communities does save lives. PCDF has initiated disaster ready trainings in nearly 20 villages in
“That was a terrible tragedy,” recalls Tevita of the tsunami, which Ra province, on the northern coastline of Fiji’s main island. Similar
claimed more than 2500 lives. training is now being taken to other communities in the neighbour-
“I was then working for World Vision PNG, and we were among ing provinces of Tailevu and Ba.
a number of international NGOs that worked on the recovery re- Tevita himself comes from Bua, one of three provinces on Fiji’s
sponse of survivors of the Aitape tsunami.” northern island of Vanua Levu. He became executive director of
Today, a disaster ready programme is part of any community proj- PCDF in December 2009, after a short stint teaching agricultural
ect PCDF implements. Training with community members includes science in secondary school. Before this, he had worked for Habitat
reviewing the ‘do’s and don’ts’ before, during and after a disaster. for Humanity in its Fiji and PNG offices, and with World Vision’s
Key to DRM is establishing and training a disaster committee in Solomon Islands, PNG, Australia, Vanuatu and Fiji operations.
the communities they work in. With Fiji experiencing two super He trained as an agriculturalist at the local agricultural college in
cyclones of category five proportions, Tropical Cyclone Winston in Koronivia, as well as at the University of the South Pacific, working
2016, and more recently Tropical Cyclone Yasa last December, anec- for the Fiji Ministry of Agriculture upon graduation for about five
dotal evidence seems to suggest that DRM training works. and half years before joining the World Vision office in Suva.

16 Islands Business, April 2021