On Thursday, October 14, the GSCP, in collaboration wit UDC, organised a webinar on ole of volunteers in civil protection: protocols and case studies. Pinelopi Gkagkari (Head of the Civil Protection Volunteerism Dept., General Secretariat for Civil Protection, Greece), and, Panagiota Karamoustou ( Officer of the Civil Protection Volunteerism Dept., General Secretariat for Civil Protection, Greece)
In total, COVALEX welcomed more than 80 participants to the second webinar of the project from all over Europe (Austria, Greece, Italy, Spain, North Macedonia).
Spiros Nikolaou welcomed the participants to the webinar, briefly described the COVALEX project and how the event is structured. The first part is organized as a webinar and concerned with the role, protocols, communication, and management of volunteers in Greece. In the second part, presentations of cases of volunteer engagement in Spain and Greece in form of a workshop follow. The content of the workshop can be found in a separate report. After these opening remarks, the floor was given to Pinelopi Gkagkari and Panagiota Karamoustou.
Ms Gkagkari and Ms Karamoustou started the webinar by introducing the Civil Protection Voluntary Teams in Greece that are part of the National Civil Protection Mechanism. They were formally established in 2002 and their mission is to provide assistance to authorities in civil protection. By March 2020, there were 580 teams with a total of more than 12.000 members.
The Directorate of Volunteerism and Education at the General Secretariat of Civil Protection manages several registries: one each for the voluntary teams, the volunteers, and the equipment. After this general background information, the speakers described the different regional levels and connected protocols. The voluntary teams operate in all phases of disaster management.
Preparedness activities include the participation in regional units or local coordinating bodies, in public awareness activities, and in the participation in training programs and activities, among others. In the response phase, the voluntary teams carry out search and rescue operations, first aid, relief actions, and logistics.
After the presentation, questions arose about how not to interfere with the need for volunteers of other organizations, e.g., fire brigades, and how the General Secretariat of Civil Protection deals with spontaneous helpers in case of an incident. As the fire brigades in Greece do not depend so heavily on volunteers as other countries, for instance, like Austria and Germany, this is not an issue and, furthermore, the actions carried out are distinct from each other.
The change of regulations in favour of a restructuring of civil protection from national to regional levels is a great success and a good practice.
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