Indonesia: Community leaders trained to map hazards

Press release

On 6-8 December 2010, UPC (Urban Poor Consortium) Indonesia held a workshop on 'Community Risks and Hazards Mapping' in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The workshop brought together 45 women from four cities in Indonesia (Makassar, Pare-Pare, Kendari, Palu) to discuss global warming, climate change and Indonesia's vulnerability to disasters. All participants were community leaders from poor communities in each of the cities.

The aim of the workshop was to raise the awareness of communities to global warming and climate change issues and Indonesia as a prone disaster area. Participants were trained to conduct community risk and hazards mapping. The main idea behind the mapping activities was to identify the impact of global warming and climate change in a local context at the community level and use local knowledge to overcome problems related to the latter, specifically related to health.

Participants returned to their communities and will proceed to carry-out community mapping with another community members. Through this mapping process they will raise awareness about the issues and act together to address problems.

The follow up action of this workshop is campaigning herbal and traditional medication to cure diseases related to global warming and climate change such as dengue, malaria, diarrhea, etc. This action will bring community out of dependence to chemical drugs and save money that they can use for another necessities.