Humanitarian Forum Indonesia (support by USAID-HFI STEADY Project) collaborates with Islamic Relief Indonesia, Education and Training Centre of BNPB, and the Ministry of Religious Affairs to organize the “Religious Leader Champion Camp – Facilitator Training for Disaster-Resilient Places of Worship.” This training is divided into two series; the first series, held at Wisma Kinasih Depok from November 18-22, 2024, focuses on three religions: Islam, Christian, and Catholic, while the second series for Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism will take place in early December 2024.

The training involves 76 participants (consisting of 23 women and 53 men), including religious leaders, place of worship managers, BNPB, BPBD Jakarta, the Jakarta Office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, as well as representatives from religious and humanitarian organizations from 12 provinces: North Sumatra, South Sumatra, Lampung, Jakarta, East Java, Central Java, West Java, Yogyakarta, West Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, and East Nusa Tenggara.

This training is expected to build disaster management knowledge for non-humanitarian actors—particularly religious leaders. The goal of the training is to enhance the capacity of facilitators in managing and developing disaster resilience programs at places of worship to face various disasters, both physically and in terms of the social capacity of the surrounding community. Through this training, it is hoped that better cooperation among various organizations and stakeholders will be fostered to support disaster risk reduction at the community level, especially in places of worship. By conducting this training, places of worship are expected to become stronger resilience hubs, assisting communities in facing disasters and playing an active role in improving disaster preparedness in Indonesia.

The knowledge built through this training includes the Basic Concepts of Disaster Management and Disaster-Resilient Places of Worship, Disaster Risk Assessment, Place of Worship Building Assessment, Preparedness Action Plans, Formation of Disaster Response Teams, Community-Based Early Warning Systems, Evacuation Plans, Emergency Plans, and Simulations using the Tabletop Exercise (TTX) model.

The knowledge gained from this training is expected to assist local actors in developing better and more inclusive disaster preparedness and mitigation agendas in places of worship and surrounding communities.

For more information on the technical guidelines for Disaster-Resilient Places of Worship (RITB) facilitators, visit https://s.id/ritb_indonesia) and the disaster preparedness book based on places of worship at https://s.id/ritb_hfi).