12 members of The Belford Estates Community Response Team (BECERT) received their CPR certification IDs from the American Heart Association on Thursday, 20 August 2009 at the Bodden Town Civic Centre. The CPR First Aid certificates were presented by Bodden Town MLAs, Hon Mark Scotland, Minister of Health, and Dwayne Seymour.

By Kevin Shereves
kevin@caymannetnews.com

The Belford Estates Community Emergency Response Team (BECERT) hosted its first team social and presentation of Emergency First Aid/AED Certifications at the Bodden Town Civic Centre on Thursday, 20 August 2009. Twelve team members were presented with CPR First Aid - AED Certification from the American Heart Association.

Bodden Town’s Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) Hon Mark Scotland and Dwayne Seymour were on hand to present the awards.

The Belford community of Bodden Town pledges to prevent or limit the amount of causalities and loss of life in the event of a disaster. The team meets once per month outside of hurricane season and twice monthly during the season at the Bodden Town Civic Centre to plan for disaster preparedness.

Errington Webster, Team Captain of BECERT, said, “Our team has been active since 2006 and we strive to sustain and fulfill our motto which states, ‘Together we can make a difference for the better’.”

The 12 BECERT team members who received their CPR certifications were Errington Webster, Millicent Webster, Eric Webster, Melesia Webster, Shenique Lodge, Monique Burton, Leslie Morant, Roger Muir, Yvonne Chambers, Sheryl Jameson, Charlene Roberts and Cindy Bush.

“These precautions are vital to our community, especially during hurricane season as no one is excluded from a threat and we will all be vulnerable.”

Minister of Health and Bodden Town MLA, Hon Mark Scotland was in attendance to present the certificates, Mr Webster said.

“I have supported the Belford Community for many years and I am proud to say that they are the first community in Grand Cayman to have received their CPR certification. They have demonstrated that they are preparing themselves as best as possible to deal effectively with emergencies if and when they arise,” he said.

“I hope that other communities throughout the Cayman Islands will adopt this model so that the country on a whole can be better prepared. The Belford community is essentially practicing a form of neighborhood watch and I congratulate the community for taking a teamwork approach to disaster preparedness.”

The certified members were also provided curfew passes from Hazard Management Cayman Islands (HMCI), which allow the members to assist the community and residents during or immediately following a disaster.

Deputy Director in charge of preparedness at HMCI, Omar Afflick said:

“Our role is to facilitate the mobilization of communities to deal with preparedness and response activities geared at increasing the resilience of communities to all hazards.

“We will be providing ongoing training to the Belford community in areas such as damage assessment, relief distribution and basic disaster management.”

Mr Webster said: “Our team has a plan as well as a constitution and we care to make a difference for the better. My main responsibility is to keep the team informed, promote and encourage participation from all team members for training purposes as well as the coordination of activities.

“Our vision is to prevent or limit the number of casualties due to any emergency affecting our community and to help with the assurance that our residents are prepared before and after a disaster.”

Mr Webster explained: “The programme has three phases. During phase one, we will go out into the community to ensure that all residents of the Belford Community with special medical needs have their basic supplies. We will also determine the number of residents who will remain in the estates and we will check to see which residents need assistance in boarding up their homes.

“During phase two, after the impact and before the all clear we will survey the damage and carry out a head count and ensure that all residents of the community are accounted for. If we discover that a single person is missing, then we will activate phase three which is a search and rescue mission. The final part of phase three is the recovery.”