SOUTH TANGERANG —-— On Thursday (May 18, 2022), the Disaster Management Center (DMC) of Dompet Dhuafa, together with Muscle Sioux – Snake Handler, held a certification and training program on snake emergency response for DMC Dompet Dhuafa colleagues at the DMC Dompet Dhuafa headquarters in South Tangerang, Banten.
The training covered snake identification and biological aspects, as well as snake bite treatment and how to handle such situations in daily life. This training aims to enhance the DMC Dompet Dhuafa team’s capacity to respond to emergencies involving wild snakes. Snakes, as wild animals, can live anywhere.
“There are three reasons snakes attack humans: when they are provoked, injured, and when they are in the mating season,” explained Wahyu, the instructor from Muscle Sioux – Snake Handler, in his presentation.
They are often found in human settlements, either hiding in attics or between the walls of houses. Snakes themselves come in many different types, ranging from non-venomous to moderately venomous to deadly venomous. Therefore, one of the messages when encountering a wild snake is not to panic and to remain calm.
“From January 2020 to early January 2021, there have been around 627 reported cases of snake bites in Indonesia. A total of 62 people have died,” said Tri Maharani, an expert on venomous snake bites and President of Toxynologi Indonesia, on Monday (11/1/2021), as reported in Kompas.
Through this training, the DMC Dompet Dhuafa team will share the material and experiences gained from this training with its network of volunteers throughout Indonesia. This way, volunteers and the community can also benefit from this training.
“This is an innovation carried out by DMC Dompet Dhuafa to improve the capacity of the team and volunteers when responding to emergencies in the community,” explained Haryo Mojopahit, Chief Executive of DMC Dompet Dhuafa.
“So our focus is not only on the physical environment through Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) programs, but also on people through disaster response services, as well as local fauna,” concluded Haryo.
Based on this, DMC Dompet Dhuafa receives calls regarding wild snakes appearing around residential areas. The public can simply contact the DMC Dompet Dhuafa Call Center at 0811-6116-916. Within 24 hours, DMC Dompet Dhuafa will promptly follow up on the call. (Dompet Dhuafa / DMC)