Disaster Management Conference in India

Faisel T Illiyas, Secretary for DRVC 2011, has advised that the School of Environmental Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam is hosting the Disaster, Risk and Vulnerability Conference 2011 (DRVC 2011) from 12-14 March 2011. This in association with the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority, Trivandrum and the Indian Medical Association Disaster Management Cell, Kerala. This timely for Australia, with floods in Queensland.

This conference aims to bring together specialists, practitioners, academics, students and the public to a common platform. Discussions on disaster management, risk and vulnerability reduction can lead to increased awareness of disasters and its various hues, strategies for resiliency and newer technologies for disaster management. The conference could update the knowledge base of disaster management professionals by communicating the latest practices and developments evolved in the country.

It would be great if anybody is interested to participate in the conference and share the experience of using SAHANA in emergencies. The conference would be an ideal venue for promoting SAHANA FOSS among the DM practitioners in India. We invite one or two experts in SAHANA from India to give an initial level operational training to the conference delegates if possible.

Our School has a Masters Degree programme in Disaster Management since 2006. We are thinking to include the SAHANA in our course syllabus. Hence the students can learn and execute it in their field of operation in future. For all these we need the technical help from the user community. Looking for your positive responses

Details of the conference can be seen at http://www.disasterresearch. net