News
Enhancing Community Media for Disaster Preparedness and Response
In January 2025, in partnership with the New Zealand High Commission to the Caribbean, the UNESCO Office for the Caribbean hosted a 3-day workshop to strengthen disaster preparedness and resilience in Jamaica’s Charles Town Maroon Community, located in the rural North-Eastern parish of Portland. The project was made possible through a New Zealand High Commission Fund grant facilitated by the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Jamaica. The Jamaica National Commission for UNESCO facilitated contact with the community and governmental counterparts.
This initiative to enhance community media’s role in disaster risk reduction and response is culturally and environmentally relevant for the Maroons, a resilient community with deep historical ties and contributions to Jamaica’s heritage. The Charles Town Maroon Community is exposed to a wide range of environmental hazards like landslides, rockfalls, flash floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Due to climate change, scientific observations and forecasts point to increased frequency and intensity of such hazards in addition to shifts in established weather and climatic patterns.
Hazards and socio-economic disruptions threaten the Maroon community’s safety and unique cultural legacy. In response, the workshop was organized as part of UNESCO’s “Media in Crisis Preparedness and Response,” which aims to harness the media’s power to deliver trusted, quality information before, during, and after crises. The project provides hazard information, helps develop community preparedness plans to mitigate impacts, and supplies media equipment to support effective communication and collaborative planning, supporting immediate response and long-term adaptation.
The workshop in the Charles Town Maroon Asafu Yard and Museum brought together local experts, trainers from the Caribbean as well as international facilitators, including Kiran Maharaj and Wesley Gibbings of the Media Institute of the Caribbean, Elroy Powell from Faada Ltd and Alexandre Planck, Marion Boucherat, and Jay from Making Noise. Her Excellency Linda Te Puni, the New Zealand High Commissioner to Jamaica, noted that community media is a vital resource for disaster management, enabling communities to stay connected and informed.
Mr. Dennis Zulu, UN Resident Coordinator, highlighted the project's impact on community cohesion and resilience in Jamaica and the Caribbean. The workshop also enhanced national collaboration by including disaster specialists from the Hank Hedge and Horace Glaze, from the Government of Jamaica and the Red Cross, respectively. Meanwhile, the Charles Town Maroon Council, led by Captain Delano Douglas, participated throughout, ensuring the community's integration into national disaster management while enhancing its self-sufficiency and response capabilities.
The RadioBox studio was handed over to the community, providing hands-on training in disaster response media, live streaming, and podcasting. The workshop empowered local leaders to manage the tools and adopt business models for financial sustainability. By linking media with cultural tourism and oral history, the initiative boosts both disaster preparedness and economic well-being. After the workshop, UNESCO will support the community with virtual mentorship sessions, to build a robust media ecosystem for disaster response, climate change communication, and cultural preservation.
Beyond disaster resilience, UNESCO aims to build a sustainable media infrastructure that empowers locals—especially youth—to produce content for disaster communication. Community volunteers will be trained in climate adaptation, hazard preparedness, and digital content creation to share vital information. The content production skills will also help the Maroons document their culture and integrate it into their eco-tourism and sustainable activities. By leveraging community media, local knowledge, and technology, UNESCO boosts Caribbean resilience to climate change and natural hazards.
The vulnerability of Indigenous communities warrants our need to develop disaster preparedness and resilience mechanisms which allow them to respond and maintain their communities while not losing their traditions and heritage. The Charles Town community showed how they use their age-old warning systems and can integrate these and adapt to new approaches which can save lives and livelihoods.
For more information, you may contact Paul Hector, Advisor for Communication and Information: p.hector@unesco.org
