Hla Soe, 69 years old, is the leader of the Disaster Risk Reduction Committee (DRR) and also a lead member of the Search & Rescue Committee for Kyauktan Township’s West Ward in Myanmar.
Soe always wanted to assist the people of his township who face frequent hardships caused by disasters. This zeal to help others made him join the committee formed by BRAC. After joining, he participated in many activities including Pre-inform about the disaster, Search and Rescue and First Aid. During the COVID-19 period, he took part in creating awareness about pandemic preparedness under the BRAC Myanmar emergency response project.
As a project member, He received many training sessions such as Search and Rescue training from the Fire Department, First Aid training from the township Red Cross and Early Warning training from BRAC Myanmar’s emergency response project. He helped create a ward map for Search and Rescue, where the homes of vulnerable groups of people such as people with disabilities, pregnant women, and the elderly were listed. The rescuers will be able to evacuate them as soon as possible with the help of the map if a disaster hits their ward.
“I will do whatever is best for my people until my last breath”, said Soe. He expressed his gratitude to BRAC Myanmar on behalf of his community. Although the DRR project has reached the conclusion, he wishes to continue working to ensure this small committee in his community exists in future years.
