The U.S. Embassy, in partnership with the Nepali Army, completed the fifth annual Disaster Management Awareness Program (DMAP) held on September 20-21, 2019. Participants this year also included the U.S. Embassy Office of Defense Cooperation, U.S. Embassy Civil Military Support Element, the Kathmandu Institute of Science and Technology, and the Nepal Ambulance Service. Every year Nepal is subject to earthquakes, landslides, and floods that affect significant portions of the population. The DMAP, funded by the U.S. Embassy Office of Defense Cooperation, provides future health care providers tools to reduce risk prior to a disaster and better prepares them for post-disaster medical management.

This year, the DMAP was designed to expose third and fourth year medical and nursing students to large scale disaster response training. Doctors and medical professionals from the Nepali Army, Kathmandu Institute of Science and Technology, U.S. Civil Military Support Element and the Nepal Ambulance Service provided disaster management and preparedness training to more than 80 participants.

During his presentation, Nepal Ambulance Service Director Dr. Kulesh Thapa relayed the message that disaster preparedness is everyone’s responsibility; society must take a holistic approach in order to best serve its people in times of crisis. The DMAP is a great example of US and Nepali civilian and military first responders coming together in order to support a disaster resilient Nepal.