Dhandhaana in Divehi means “Reach”. This is the name the Maldives National Disaster Management Center (NDMC) has given the Sahana Alerting and Messaging Broker (SAMBRO) implementation. Now SAMBRO powers NDMC to reach the communities at risk with alerts and warnings. The implementation was the a key outcome of the “CAP on a Map” project; funded by UN-ESCAP and implemented jointly with the AIT Geoinformatics Center.
Dhandhaana was officially launched under the auspices of the Minister of Defense And National Security Republic of Maldives: Hon. Adam Shareef and the Deputy Minister of NDMC: Ms. Fathmath Thasneem. The ceremony was part of the International Disaster Risk Reduction Day events held on 13 October 2016 in Male.
Media Interviews
The media was curious of the precise role of SAMBRO. The answer was that it was reducing the response distance (or time) for saving lives and property, which was illustrated in a previous blog post:
Maldives making use of the SAMBRO is consolidating all available resources through a shared platform for exchanging timely emergency and crisis information. Thereby, narrowing the emergency response times by offering each and every Island a fare deal.
Stakeholder Discussion
Following the launching ceremony of NDMC products, the Cap on a Map project presented the results from the evaluation exercises. The findings were promising.
The discussions were based on how NDMC might get the Maldives Meteorological Service (MMS) to implement the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), possibly their own instance of SAMBRO, to directly feed their weather and earthquake bulletins to NDMC through a CAP RSS feed. It is and has been on their agenda but MMS is currently involved in other priorities.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) expressed interest in making use of SAMBRO. Similar to MMS, the MOH Emergency Operation Center (EOC) would integrate with NDMC. The MOH EOC is keen in receiving all-hazard alerts from NDMC that they would relay to their healthcare workers during crises to activate emergency medical services. Additionally, MOH would issue Public Health alerts of alarming events or escalation of Communicable Diseases.
The Maldivian Red Crescent was made aware of the Universal Hazard APP. They are now able to request the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent (IFRC) to customize the Univeral Hazard APP for Maldives. Thereafter, the MRC volunteers and staff members are able to receive NDMC CAP messages.
NDMC will assist the Stakeholders willing to integrate with the CAP-enabled SAMBRO. They will also work towards shaping the necessary National policies to support the expansion of CAP. Some of these efforts will be through the National Disaster Management Technical Committee.
