The ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disastermanagement (AHA Centre) officially launched its ten-day induction coursefor the fifth batch of ASEAN Emergency Response and Assessment Team(ASEAN-ERAT) on June 19 in Bogor, Indonesia.

According to the press release by AHA, the 100-hour course aims toprepare regional emergency responders in ASEAN for a faster and morecoordinated response towards disasters.

TheASEAN-ERAT is formed to strengthen ASEAN’s preparedness and capacity torespond to disasters, ensuring rapid assessment has been conducted andthat collective response from other ASEAN member states can befacilitated accordingly in timely manner.

Thisyear, there are 29 participants who are representatives from ASEANmember states, civil society organisations, the International Federationof Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the ASEAN Secretariat,the AHA Centre and also the current AHA Centre Executive (ACE) ProgrammeOfficers.

This fifth induction course is madepossible by the support from the Indonesian Government (BNPB), theSingapore Government (Singapore Civil Defence Force), the AustralianGovernment, the Japanese Government, the ASEAN Secretariat, as well aspartners to the AHA Centre such as the United Nations Office forCoordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), the AADMER PartnershipGroup (APG) and Channel News Asia.-VNA