På besøg hos borgmesteren i Guinobatan, februar 2024.
A relevant internship
Anders and Alexander, from the 4th semester of Catastrophe and Risk Management, are currently doing their internship in the Philippines. They will stay there for 10 weeks and work with Risk Communication, as directly related to their education.
“When we held the interview with DIB and Alterplan about the internship position, we knew that the tasks would have been relevant for our previous knowledge and competencies, and therefore in the same way it would have been relevant to test it in practice”.
The two students from Københavns Professionshøjskole also say that this combination of theory and practice is a good match both for DIB and themselves.
““What we can do is bring to the table new perspectives and theory from our education, and work with that in practice. We think it is an advantage for both us and the organization”.“
Outsiders’ thoughts on disaster risk reduction
Anders and Alexander’s core task is to make an assessment on how the local Barangays (the smallest administrative units) with inhabitants from the at-risk area of the Mayon volcano, can work on impactful solutions for the affected areas and residents. Indeed, they went to Legazpi, where the Mayon volcano is located, 500 km away from their daily life in Manila. They went there to follow the production of the video documentary of the Mayon Magayonproject, and to interview both the partners and the locals who were part of the project.
“During our visit we got the chance to interview both captains of the Barangay and to ask questions to the locals about the project, and especially what were their wishes for their town, which was a crucial detail in our work”.
Alexander and Anders have therefore gathered the collected information and used it as input for their presentation to the other BarangaysBarangays that also are located in at-risk areas. In this sense, Alexander and Anders have already found a very important point to present, which Mayon Magayonwas also a big success of the Mayon-Magayon project.
“Involve the locals, as this is something that is about them. From our experience they would very much like to participate and contribute with the resources they have. This also relates to what it is globally aspired for in the work of development and humanitarian assistance, and also one of DIB’s hallmarks”.
One step at the time in the right direction
Anders and Alexander told us that their presentation to the Barangay’s captains could be useful to help the residents in dangerous areas, which is a step closer to a safer future.
“We didn’t go there to tell the Barangay’s leaders what they had to do, but rather which fundamental principles we have witnessed to work effectively in the other Barangays in the same situations. With this approach we aim to unfold the good learning elements we have seen, and in that way to be a little part of what hopefully will become a safe and sound location in the region of the Mayon volcano. Considering the willingness to participate of everyone we talked to, we just need to get everyone involved and mitigate the challenges that will arise”.
Anders and Alexander will be doing their internship until mid-April, and afterwards go back to Denmark and their education.
Read more about the Mayon project here: https://www.dib.dk/projekter/filippinerne/
