The first two groups of volunteers in disaster management completed their local training sessions in Türkiye and Bulgaria. They are conducted in the frame of the project Cooperation for disaster prevention and environmental monitoring in BSB - Co-PREVENT (BSB802).

According to the report of UNDP (2010) capable and accountable state, supported by an effective civil society and engaged private sector, is indispensable for the sustainable reduction of disaster risk. In this context, the project partners – from Türkiye, Bulgaria, the Republic of Moldova and Greece are developing local and international activities to increase the local people’s capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from disasters rather than simply focusing only on the vulnerability through the establishment of a joint group "Disaster management volunteers in the BSB region". 

The local people, especially young people, are the primary power that plays a vital role in helping those affected populations. They can provide invaluable assistance during the evacuation and rescue activities in disaster situations on the local level. Considering this, each partner country in the project will train more than ten young people on how to act in a case of disaster and how to assist their neighbours.

The Bulgarian partner, Kameno Municipality, conducted the training first between 4-8 July 2022, in the training centre of Regional Directorate "Fire Safety and Protection of the Population" - Burgas.

Between 18-22 July 2022, more than ten volunteers participated in the rescue, research, first aid and disaster management training conducted by the lead partner of the project, Regional Forestry of Istanbul, Türkiye.

The training sessions in Türkiye and Bulgaria covered theoretical and practical knowledge for rescue activities, exercises for wild-fires fighting and disaster management in case of floods in the border area.

The next training sessions for young volunteers will be done in Greece and the Republic of Moldova in September this year. Next year, the Bulgarian partner will host a 3-day Cross-Border flood exercise with the participation of all trained volunteers from Türkiye, Bulgaria, the Republic of Moldova and Greece.