KUCHING: A total of 46 participants from the Malaysia Civil Defence Force Sarawak (APM) completed the Civil Defence Emergency Response Team (CDERT) Community training at a closing ceremony held at Pusat Latihan Pertahanan Awam Sarawak yesterday.
Present at the event was the press secretary of Works Ministry Abang Zulkifli Abang Engkeh who was representing Works Minister Baru Bian.
In his speech, Abang Zulkifli said that the CDERT course is a platform for the local community in which they are trained to be prepared, alert and ready for natural any form of disasters.
“I think the CDERT course is an activity which is beneficial to the local community, a platform to help APM in emergency response cases such as flooded areas here.
“The programme will be organised throughout Sarawak especially the rural areas. Through this, we hope that the training could expand and focus also on social issues in the local community.
“In the rural areas there are problems such as drug abuse, alcoholism and glue-sniffing. The CDERT training is a step in helping to reduce such negative activities,” he said.
The CDERT training was started on March 16 2006 to reach out to local communities on safety issues and natural disasters.
