GRM Founding Directors David Day and Elizabeth Chan recently traveled to Tokyo, where they were joined by Dr. Robert Eldridge, the GRM Director, North Asia, for a series of meetings with other NGOs, government agencies, private sector businesses, and academia. Mr. Day, Dr. Chan, and Dr. Eldridge met with senior leadership at Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management and Peacewinds Japan to discuss potential future collaborations in Japan and Asia. In connection with the GRM Marawi work, GRM also met with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for a briefing on Japan’s efforts in Mindanao. GRM also met with the former Japanese Ambassador to Timor Leste and Project 2100, a disaster relief vessel construction project.
GRM will be producing a series of articles on risk and disaster management, to be published in Japan by The Firefighter magazine.
At the conclusion of the GRM meetings in Japan, Dr. Eldridge spoke at a conference sponsored by HobbyWorld Marine. Dr. Eldridge summarized lessons learned from the disaster response during the Great Tohoku Earthquake, of particular relevance given recent flooding in Japan.