BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CDERA): The first in a series of 16 training courses on Emergency Telecommunications opens in Grenada on Wednesday. The course is expected to train more than 15 persons from the emergency services in Grenada, among them the fire service, police, army, and ambulance services. The training focuses not only on upgrading the skills and knowledge of these personnel but also establishing standards and protocols which would be common throughout the 16 member states of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA). Hosted by the National Disaster Management Agency (NaDMA) and CDERA, this course focuses on the use of HF and VHF radio communication and satellite telephone communication. It is part of a wider Land-based Search and Rescue Project being implemented by CDERA in all of its 16 member states. It seeks to develop, by 2006, enhanced search and rescue infrastructure at the national and regional levels as well as provide training in search and rescue techniques. Close to half a million EC dollars* in equipment has been provided to Grenada to support its land-based search and rescue operation. Equipment included a specially equipped vehicle for search and rescue, four first responder kits, six portable generators, two satellite telephones (one mobile and one fixed), and a laptop computer. Each first responder kit, which is designed to service six rescuers, contains close to one hundred pieces of equipment that might be needed in a land-based search and rescue operation. Additional training in the management and operation of all the equipment and in warehousing will complete the implementation of the land-based search and rescue project which is funded by the Government of Japan through the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security which is managed by the United Nations Development Programme. Reprinted from Caribbean Net News caribbeannetnews.com