BUiLD Project Visitation, Ubaya Synergizes Campus Resources for Disaster Response
The University of Surabaya (Ubaya) is committed to expanding its international network, as evidenced by Ubaya's involvement in Building Universities in Leading Disaster Resilience (BUiLD) project from Erasmus+. BUiLD is an Erasmus+ project to develop disaster resilience capacity, performed by a university consortium that consists of 4 European institutions and 8 Indonesian universities. Through this project, all 8 Indonesian universities, including Ubaya, now have its Center of Disaster Management (Ubaya CDM). As part of this project, a visitation from the BUiLD team was conducted on Thursday, October 13, 2022, to monitor the Ubaya CDM progress.
For a day, the BUiLD team that consists of Nadine Sulkowski from the University of Gloucestershire, UK, and Prof. Paul Schober from Hafelekar, Austria, visited Ubaya to discuss the Ubaya CDM progress and see some Ubaya CDM facilities. The visitation that took place in the Ubaya International Village building was attended by Ubaya leaders and the Ubaya BUiLD CDM team.
"Thank you very much; a very warm welcome to Ubaya. Thank you for trusting Ubaya to be part of BUiLD for over two years. We hope that there will be some input for us through this meeting. In Ubaya, the center will be under the Institute of Research and Community Engagement as we normally do with other Ubaya Centers of Excellence like the Center of Human Rights, Center of Renewable Energy, and Center of Urban Community Empowerment," said Dr.rer.nat. Maria Goretti Marianti Purwanto, as the Ubaya Vice Rector I.
After Dr. Maria, Nadine thanked Ubaya's hospitality and a warm welcome to her and Prof. Paul. "Thank you for this great hospitality," said Nadine. She explained her happiness that the visitation can be conducted offline and meet Ubaya colleagues in person after almost three years of the pandemic. "We appreciate that every partner involved in the Ubaya CDM brings their uniqueness. I know Ubaya is currently approaching the National Search and Rescue Agency for disaster training. And today, I am also pleased to witness one of the potential Ubaya CDM partners, an online taxi provider, present here. I really hope to see the activities soon. Not to forget, thank you for Ubaya's support of this center," added Nadine.
Prof. Ir. Joniarto Parung MMBAT, Ph.D., as the head of the Ubaya BUiLD Project, revealed his effort to synergize Ubaya's resources. "We know that there are a lot of resources on campus which, if synergized, can provide much assistance to communities affected by disasters. Ubaya resources can also help the government to be resilient in dealing with disasters. Thus this center wants to involve all campus residents.” he said.