NEWLY co-opted parish councillor James Enticknap-Green has just returned from a deployment to the Philippines with the Disaster Arborist Response Team – DART International UK – which was started while carrying out disaster relief work in the immediate aftermath of typhoon Haiyan in November 2013.

A qualified tree surgeon, James provided his arborist skills and humanitarian aid as a volunteer as well as helping with the ongoing training of other volunteers two years on in the disaster’s aftermath.

The Bramshott and Liphook parish member said: “This deployment was very hot and hard work and at times quite emotional. But I wholeheartedly applaud all the good work of the charity and its ethos and I will continue to support DART in the future and raise funds where I can.

“It was great being part of a four-man team that went on deployment to Northern Samar in the central Philippines for two weeks, where we assisted with disaster recovery and clearance of typhoon debris in accordance with local disaster management priorities.”

Throughout the deployment the team worked under the direction of the vice-mayor as head of the local disaster co-ordination and management organisation.

The local government’s priority was to clear wind-blown trees and “hung up” timber from the grounds of schools.

As a result, the team worked in three schools – San Jose Central School, the town’s Secondary Technical College, and nearby Geratag School.

San Jose Central School was particularly devastated by the loss of their computer classroom, which provided eight computers for 1,300 children.

The DART team bought sufficient roofing materials to allow the school to rebuild the classroom with the aid of volunteer labour.

The team also provided advice on the treatment of damaged, high-risk trees and carried out any disaster resilience work requested and approved by the local government or other land owners.

In addition to fallen timber, they undertook tree management work on 20 large and “high-risk” mango trees in the grounds of San Jose Central School, and with the approval of local community leaders they added a programme of chainsaw handling and tree-clearance training with volunteers.

Throughout the two-week deployment and with the approval of the town’s mayor, the DART team carried out a programme of training with four carefully selected members of the town’s disaster co-ordination and management organisation.

Training included risk assessment, the importance of personal protective equipment, safe chainsaw handling and cross cutting of timber on the ground, as well as basic chainsaw maintenance. On conclusion, each of the four local volunteers passed a formal competency assessment.

At the end of their trip and thanks to the generosity of Stein and Makita UK, the team donated their chainsaws and full protective equipment to the disaster co-ordination and management organisation for future use by the trained volunteers in dealing with extreme weather events.

In addition to working with the San Jose local government and disaster co-ordination and management organisation, the team co-ordinated their activities with senior members of Rotary International, who were conducting the delivery of humanitarian aid from elsewhere in the Philippines.

The DART team made an immediate and lasting impact on San Jose, where three large schools have been made safer, a valuable classroom can now be repaired, and the disaster co-ordination and management organisation is better trained and equipped to deal with future typhoon events.

Financial and material backing was provided by Stein Products, Glendale Managed Services, Makita UK and www.forst-woodchip pers.com