The Be Ready Caravan is part of an ecosystem of solutions initiated by the Department of Emergency Services (DSU) in Romania with the purpose of raising awareness in the population. The ecosystem also includes solutions such as the DSU App, National Emergency Preparedness Platform, and the Ro-Alert System. In the caravan, information in the form of videos is given to citizens that visit the caravan. The presentations are related to for example the DSU App (The Romanian Department for Emergency Situations), and the Romanian National Emergency Preparedness Platform. After having watched the videos, basic first aid skills are taught to the visitors by trainers. In the extendable classroom of the truck, information in the form of videos is given to citizens who visit the caravan. The videos are addressing what to do during an earthquake. In a modified, new caravan, the classroom also moves to simulate an earthquake. After having watched the videos, basic first aid skills are taught to visitors by instructors. In the caravan, medical and first aid equipment and portable devices are available. Teaching first aid skills is said to be extra important in rural areas where general knowledge of first aid is low, and people may not even know the emergency number. The use of the caravan is resource intensive. Creating a plan for staffing and promoting visits is important. Attention must be given to the time needed to train the instructors, preparing a visit in collaboration with the local inspectorate, creating an efficient schedule for visits, promote the visits to ensure lots of visitors to the caravan etc. In addition, truck maintenance programme makes the caravan unavailable for short periods of time.
Romania has 42 inspectorates and is a big country. However, the visits of the caravan are not planned according to regions but on the number of citizens that could potentially be reached by a visit. The first visits were scheduled in densely populated areas, and then rural areas were visited. The primary goal of the Be-ready caravan is to give information to as many people as possible, and second to ensure that people have heard about the Be-ready caravan to promote interest for visits in other places.
Close collaboration between the state, the military and the SMURD service ensures local support, trainers, and volunteers to work on the caravan when it visits a new place. The SMURD service is a distributed organisation that covers the whole country.
The cost of buying and maintaining such a caravan is relatively high. One should therefore consider available resources.
The solution was not targeted at specific ages or groups. However, experience showed that people in rural areas were more interested in and fascinated by the caravan and how it looked inside. In rural areas, a lot of elderly people and children came to have a look at it. In urban areas, the visitors to the caravan where a mix of different categories of people.
When it comes to resources in terms of staff, it might be necessary to consider plans for staff empowerment to mitigate or prenvent burnout that may be caused by days on the road and being away from home.
The cost of buying and maintaining such a caravan is relatively high. A sufficient number of trainers (to train local trainers) is needed. In Romania, they have 100 trainers that rotate doing this.
Preparation of the visit at least two weeks in advance is paramount. Support from local authorities is needed, also from NGOs and volunteers in promoting the caravan before it arrives and in staffing the caravan with trained instructors when it is there.
Institutions, schools and other people are asking for the caravan to visit them. Some had been visiting the caravan in the weekend and started to ask for visit during the week. Because the use of the caravan is so resource intensive, there need to be at least 100 persons gathered for the caravan to make a visit. Often there were half or even less. Now the people requesting a visit needs to guarantee that there will be at least 100 people present.
Romania is vulnerable to earthquakes and floods, and the general population do not know how to respond to emergency situations. The solution responds to a need for education on how to prevent and how to be prepared for natural disasters. Surveys performed by Romanian authorities, state that people are interested in getting information about preparedness, but do not do anything to find this information themselves through search for information online or other channels. Thus, in 2016 the caravan was created as a means of approaching people and improve knowledge.
Several logistical elements have been identified
Currently, there are 9 drivers operating the caravan, and they do not want to stay away from home for several weeks. Thus, the calendar of visits can not have an event every day. For instance, the preferred time away for visiting a festival at the seaside would be a couple of months. There need to be more drivers available in one area.
The caravan needs maintenance regularly, and by using the same garage each time, the caravan needs to come back to the same city to visit this specific garage. This makes the route and calendar of visits less efficient.
Third, the caravan is resource intensive. It needs a driver (maybe several in one area), at least two people from the inspectorate from each city will be involved in a visit, as many as 10 instructors in some cities – depends on the situation, and everyone is needed for a full day,
A new caravan is currently being used in addition to the first Be ready-caravan.
Based on lessons learned, visually striking effects has been added to the design of the caravan, such as a picture of fire fighters on one side, and a big house showing an earthquake on the other.
Promotion of the caravan and the visits should be systematic and done well in advance. This means from a month to two weeks in advance. The instructors are calling, sending emails, and creating a press release before the caravan visits a new place. They also ask NGOs, volunteers, and other people to share information that the caravan is coming to their city or area.
Another improvement has been to add more elements that create fun for the visitors. To enhance interest and attract a diverse range of people to the caravan when it is in place, figures of fire fighters where you could put your head inside and take a picture has been made. Sharing of these pictures in social media is encouraged. There was a discussion whether they should also create a mascot, but the idea was discarded because the topic is serious and important, and creating a mascot could give the wrong associations.
Several logistical challenges have been identified:
The current system with one driver is not optimal in terms of logistics and efficiency of the time used. The driver of the caravan needs to frequently go back to his city, which means that the route for the caravan is less efficient than it could have been. It would be more efficient for the caravan to cover one area in detail and then move on to the next area, without the limitation of the driver needing to go back home.
The caravan needs maintenance regularly, and using different garages is demanding.
The paramedics are now used as trainers for the local instructors who staff the caravan at visits. There could be as many as 10 instructors needed in some cities, and everyone is needed for a full day. Finding local drivers that may stay away from home for a longer period of time to have an efficient schedule for the caravan Coordination with the local inspectorate about providing instructors, volunteers and other staff is sometimes challenging. At least two people from the inspectorate from each city will be involved in a visit, sometimes as many as ten.
A new caravan is currently being used in addition to the first Be ready-caravan. Creating interest in and attracting visitors to the caravan is the main modification.
Attracting people to the caravan when it is doing a scheduled visit could be demanding. Often more visitors have been promised than the number that shows up. Adding more visually appealing and striking effects could spur interest and curiosity from people in the area.
To attract more people to the caravan on its visit to a city or area, promotion of the caravan and the time of visit in an area has been improved. Now the instructors are calling, sending emails, and creating a press release before the caravan visits a new place. They also ask NGOs, volunteers, and other people to share information that the caravan is coming to their city or area. Two weeks in advance, there is a promotion on social media (Facebook) through posts from SMURD and also paid advertisement (on Facebook).
Adding too many fun elements could distract attention from the serious and important topics that the visits are intended to convey.