A group of bloggers and public school teachers in Cebu City craft their #WeatherWiser communication plan. (CONTRIBUTED_
Participants taught how to use social media in disseminating weather info
City Savings Bank (CitySavings) partnered with Weather Philippines Foundation (WeatherPhilippines) in a #WeatherWiser Influencers training that benefited 18 bloggers and 26 public school teachers from the Cebu City Schools Division last July 22 at the Summit Circle Hotel.
Rappler’s Raisa Serafica, the resource speaker, tackled the use of social media for knowledge mobilization and disaster preparedness. She also gave a demonstration on Project Agos, an online platform under Rappler’s citizen journalism arm “MovePH” that combines top-down government action and bottom-up civic engagement to help communities deal with climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
Through WeatherPhilippines’ localized weather data, participants were later on asked to come up with a communication plan for schools to adopt before, during and after times of disaster.
“As teachers, a big chunk of our time is dedicated to our students, and we are also not that familiar on how to maximize the use of social media to disseminate weather information. After undergoing this training, I can say that I’m very thankful to CitySavings and WeatherPhilippines for being our partners and giving us a chance to learn not only for the benefit of our students but for the community as well,” said Samuel Baritua of Mabolo Elementary School.
With an average of 10-20 typhoons that enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) annually, it is a must for every Filipino to change our mind-set on disaster preparedness and know the actual impact of weather in our lives to help us make better decisions.