My recent interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) World News:
Tech savvy population, willingness to try new ideas help country prepare for next disaster
Celina Agaton recently returned to the Philippines, hoping to help out her homeland with her unique set of skills.
“I’m really excited because it’s been about five years since I’ve wanted to do something like this for my home country,” said Agaton.
The Filipino-Canadian, who grew up in Manila and Jakarta but now calls Toronto home, arrived in the devastated southeast Asian country in late November, about two weeks after the typhoon killed more than 6,000 and left 4 million displaced.
Agaton, who’s working in the country as a cross-sector community organizer, is part of a crisis-mapping community that emerged just before the 2010 Haiti earthquake and has transformed in the past three years from a loose group into a more formal entity relied upon by relief agencies in disasters.