Mangalore: The PG department of Social Work at St Aloysius College organized ‘Samprathi 2014’  a two day seminar on Peoples Participation in Disaster Prevention and Management here on Sept. 16th. The seminar was held in collaboration with Civil Defense Dept.

Honorable Vice Chancellor of Mangalore University, Prof. Byrappa inaugurated the event.

Rev. Fr. Swebert D’Silva SJ, Rector, St. Aloysius College, Rev. Fr. Denzil Lobo SJ, Rector, St. Aloysius Institution (MJES) , Mangalore along with Prof. A.M Narahari, Registrar, St. Aloysius College and Mr. Purushotham, Dy. and Team, Civil Defense Dept, D K Dist presided over the inaugural.

Rev. Dr. Fredrick D’Souza, Executive Director, Caritas India, in his keynote address, said that most of the people in Bihar and Assam die of snake bite and not due to drowning in floods. Floods are a perennial phenomena of places like Bihar and Assam for which people wisely make use of banana plantation as a disaster management tool to face the floods.

Mr. E. J. Jose, Programme Manager, Kerala spoke on ‘People’s participation in prevention of environment disaster.’ He asserted that “everybody is ar risk and nobody is safe when it comes to natural hazards. He explained ‘Risk’ as Hazards multiplied by vulnerability divided by the capacity of the people to overcome the situation.  Hence community involvement plays a major role in disaster management.

Dr. K. J . Devasia and Mr. Purushotham dealt with the topics like Role of Civil society and Tanning on First Aid, respectively.

Dr. Loveena Lobo, HOD, welcomed the guests and the participants and Mr. Lohith shetty, Convener of the event rendered the  vote of thanks.