The Papua New Guinea Church Partnership Program (PNGCPP) launched a new disaster manual on Tuesday. It comes after the churches response to last year’s El Nino weather patterns that caused severe droughts across the country.
The disaster manual was written by former agriculture secretary, Matthew Kanua.
Churches are established in many remote parts of the country and provide the first line of relief when disasters displace rural communities . The PNGCPP consists of a body of mainline churches in a pact with the National Government to provide essential services where they are non-existent.
But, for many years there hasn’t been a blue print to help churches carry out disaster-responsive work.
Disaster Assessor, Matthew Kanua says much of the work done by churches through disasters like the 1997 El Nino and the more recent droughts last year, was done without a plan.
But, now there is a manual formulated and will be available for churches to use in times of strife.
