Constantia Kloof resident educates community on disaster protocols

Chad Mileham is a disaster relief expert for Disaster Relief Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) and is passionate about implementing the old two-way radio communication system in the event of disasters and medical emergencies.

The non-profit organisation prepares volunteers to provide disaster relief and assistance by establishing CERT, training them, raising awareness of disasters, and financially contributing to training, equipment, and emergency radio communication.

The structure of CERT is based on a geographical or ward basis, with general CERT consisting of registered volunteers operating in small areas and specialised CERT providing specific functions, tasks, and capabilities depending on qualification levels or legislative requirements.

The Constantia Kloof resident has more than 23 years of experience in managing IT businesses, including an alarm monitoring and armed response company. He has also worked in the private sector and executive communications.

Over the past five years, the organisation has developed a basic radio communication training manual, an induction training manual, and a disaster area damage assessment training manual for CERT volunteers.

After selling the business, he returned to the South African Red Cross Society to assist others and began his Red Cross journey in the early 1980s, working as a volunteer and employee of the society. During his tenure as the Southern Transvaal region operations manager, he gained skills in disaster relief operations and emergency-related incidents. He also gained experience in managing, treating, and transporting patients in the private sector and worked for Executive Communications. As a licensed radio amateur and disaster relief CERT director, Chad has operated an emergency operations centre since 2016.

“I’ve spent a year and a half developing the second manual, which is the induction training manual. I started the company off as an ENCOM assist CERT – a business-based organisation in terms of the Disaster Management Act, but then we decided to register as an NPO, myself and a fellow Red Cross volunteer, John Groom and Steven Renaults, another radio amateur in the community. We decided to register as a public benefit organisation with SARS, therefore we have partial tax exemption status,” Chad said.

The manuals were designed to teach volunteers who CERT is, what it stands for, what its policies are, and how they assist during crises. It is, however, important to note that they are not a first-responder organisation.

Chad has spent another two years designing the disaster area damage assessment training manual, which is for CERT volunteers, so that they can learn what to do before, during, and after a disaster in terms of their role of being able to provide, current valid and correct information to the authorities.

“Having worked several disasters and being trained by the International Committee of the Red Cross that information is critical and crucial to effective disaster relief. We teach volunteers to do risk analysis and vulnerability assessments,” Chad said.

Through the radio communication centre, residents should be able to inform the disaster management centre that this street has been cordoned off, use a different point of entry, or send help via airlift.

While he works with many security companies in the area, he also administrates multiple WhatsApp groups for which residents and security professionals can interact to report suspicious activities within their area.