October 17, (THEWILL) – The Centre for Disaster, Risk, Management and Development studies, at the University of Maiduguri has said it has received equipment worth over N14 million from Save the Children International for weather monitoring and mitigating disasters in the region.
The Director of the centre, Prof. Abubakar Aliyu Monguno, disclosed this on Thursday, during the commemoration of the 2024 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, held at the University of Maiduguri.
The director said that this year’s event themed: “The Role of Education in Promoting and Empowering Youths on Disaster Free Future” was funded by the SCI, a mark of their commitment to promoting disaster risk awareness.
“Save the Children has been graciously supporting the centre. Just two months back. They supported our centre with equipment worth N14 million and a GIS licence in order for us to help in monitoring the weather. So put together, the combined cost of the equipment is worth N14 million.
“We are so grateful to them for this partnership. Now we are taking it to another level, this time around, they have also funded the International Day for Disaster Risk, 2024. It is a successful collaboration”, he said.
He further said that the Centre has trained over 1,000 students in disaster risk management.
“So far, since inception as a centre. We have been able to train over 1,000 Students with professional masters in disaster risk management, and 111 students at the postgraduate diploma level, so together, we are talking of nearly 1200 at the postgraduate level that we have been able to train”, he explained
He also said, “Beyond that, we are also thinking very deeply that very soon, we will start a bachelor of science degree in disaster risk management together with the department of geography.”
Earlier, Senior Early Warning and Anticipatory Action Manager for Save the Children International, Osebi Adams said the essence of the International Day for Disaster Risk is to promote the knowledge of disaster risk reduction among young people to guarantee a safer future
Adams further said, “As you can see, today we have various stakeholders from the National Emergency Management Agency, University of Maiduguri, members of Civil society organisations, UN agency, local and international NGOs, and most importantly, children from various schools because as I said earlier, it is about promoting the knowledge among young people”
“Through this program, we are creating awareness. Because as we are today, the world needs to be disaster-ready. We all saw what happened recently, that is the flooding some weeks back. No one expected it despite all the measures and systems. But if we are more disaster resilient. It is like we are wearing bulletproof against disaster”, he noted.
