PCDR joins the celebration of International Women’s Day

ILOILO CITY, PHILIPPINES – Panay Center for Disaster Response, Inc., stands in solidarity with the world as we celebrate the triumphs of the international women’s movement. As a disaster response organization, PCDR recognizes the contributions of women around the globe throughout history. This recognition, importantly, allows PCDR to celebrate the women who make the establishment and the hundreds of women who make the grassroots-level People’s Organizations and Disaster Preparedness Committees.

While it is true that the women’s movement has come so far and has gained victories that forwarded women’s place in society–strides that advanced ideas of equality and inclusivity–there is still much work left to do. This work manifests itself in various parts and parcels of society and is recognizable in the line of work of PCDR as a DRR non-government organization. Traditionally, women are expected to take up domestic spaces that almost always limit their spatial, social, and civic mobility. PCDR, along with its partner organizations and formations, sees this and believes that the women in our communities are more than that. They have their own capabilities that are necessary to be utilized and capitalized, especially in practicing Community-Based Disaster Management (CBDM).

In practicing CBDM, PCDR has seen the proactive participation of women in the community. PCDR has seen the women of different communities project areas leading the formulation of disaster risk reduction plans: from the creation of the Community Map, the Resource Map, the Hazard Map, and the Evacuation Route Map, to the formulation of the Early Warning System and the Evacuation Center Management System, and spearheading of their Survivor and Community-Led Response (SCLR) Projects. This shows that the women in our communities do have a role that is equally as crucial to that of the community’s men in disaster management, substantiating the various studies that looked into the matter as well.

Thus,  in celebrating the women in our communities and in realizing that there truly is work to be done for women to have their place in making their communities resilient, this calls for every DRRM civil society organization to formulate their projects while keeping the concern of the women community members in mind. These projects must be created with sensitivity and most importantly, inclusivity. These, PCDR believes, are necessary steps that uphold the victories we have gained as a society and aspire the making of resilient communities with no one left behind.