->The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) expanded the capacity for training of Disaster Relief Volunteers (DRVs) to strengthen the resilience in whole-of-society disaster prevention.

Today (on 2024/09/05), the Ministry of Interior (MOI) briefed on the "Promotion Status of Training and Utilization of Disaster Relief Volunteers (DRVs)" to the Executive Yuan Council. As per Minister LIU Shyh-fang, in the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Japan, 34.9% of the populaces escaped on their own during the disaster, 31.9% escaped with the help of family members, and 28.1% escaped from the disaster with the help of neighbors or friends. Based on this valuable experience, governments of various countries have not only strengthened the disaster prevention and relief capacity of the public sector, but also gradually attached more importance to the populaces’ capability to self-help and mutual assistance. Therefore, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) has actively promoted the training of Disaster Relief Volunteers (DRVs) more extensively, planning to complete the training of 50,000 DRVs across the country by the end of next year (in 2025), to strengthen civilian autonomous rescue capabilities.

Pointed out by Minister LIU, the government has promoted the training of DRVs since 2018, and the promotion targets have expanded from villages and neighborhoods in the early days to enterprises, non-governmental organizations, and public sector and agencies. As of the end of August this year (2024/08), a total of 30,376 DRVs have been trained nationwide. In order to extensively promote the DRV training, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) has taken the lead and completed the training for 400 DRVs at the Central Joint Office Building between July and August this year (2024/07 – 2024/08). It also planned to complete the DRV training for about 150 people from the Legislative Yuan and the Examination Yuan in September (2024/09), as well as has coordinated with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), Chunghwa Telecom, and other agencies (institutions) to promote the DRV training. In addition, the Social Resilience Training Center for the Alternative Military Service has planned the 2025 DRV training for new alternative military service personnel and the called-up reserved alternative military service personnel to jointly enhance the disaster prevention and relief capacity

Additionally, Minister LIU personally visited Fo Guang Shan in August (2024/08) to invite Fo Guang Shan to participate in the DRV training, hoping to leverage the power of religion to jointly strengthen our disaster prevention and relief resilience. Fo Guang Shan stated that it would fully cooperate with the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) on the 921 Exercise on the National Disaster Preparedness Day in Chiayi, and that their DRV training would be promoted within the Fo Guang Shan Temple and among its believers in Yunlin, Chiayi, and Tainan areas.

Emphasized by Minister LIU, in addition to continuing to promote DRV trainings within government agencies, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) will also continue to promote DRV trainings within enterprises in the future. It is hoped that a certain proportion of enterprises’ employees could obtain DRV qualifications and that enterprises could include DRV goal in their ESG (environmental, social, and governance) goals, so that enterprises could march towards sustainable operations. Moreover, it is hoped that all circles, regardless of their status and occupation, would participate in DRV training together to increase their disaster prevention knowledge and skills, so that they are able to help themselves and relatives and friends around them, maximizing the benefits of the DRV training.