ACEFAC 2014 * Sunara Fernando
Manager Community Engagement
NSW Rural Fire Service
Sunara Fernando led emergency operations following major events including the 2008 Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and the 2010 Haiti earthquake for agencies including UNICEF, Oxfam and the International Organisation for Migration. She is one of the personnel sent by the United Nations, government and non-government organisations to set up emergency operations and foster disaster risk reduction programs.
Her approach to Community Engagement is driven by a combination of personal and professional experience, theoretical frameworks and reflections on what did and did not work. They are shaped by the everyday, as well as the extreme human experience, the comical and the technical. She will share the lessons for community engagement workers that can be learned from the emergency response and community development work of international agencies.