At the invitation of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Observatory's Sandy Song, Senior Scientific Officer, travelled a long way to Curitiba in Brazil to deliver a series of lectures in a training workshop in late September 2008. Thirty meteorologists from seven South American countries attended the workshop. The lectures focused on the important role of public weather services in support of disaster prevention and mitigation, especially on the communication and coordination between meteorological services and disaster management stakeholders. The workshop was organized under the Public Weather Services (PWS) Programme of the WMO (http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/amp/pwsp/index_en.html).

After the lectures, Mr. Jorge D. Chira La Rosa from Peru praised that the successful experience of the Observatory in public weather services set a role model for the meteorological community worldwide. The lectures would help him better coordinate disaster management activities. Ms. Emma Giada Matschinske from Brazil, the local organizer of the workshop, complimented Ms. Song on the lecture about media interviewing techniques, saying that the information was extremely useful. The workshop stimulated enthusiastic responses and sharing of experience among the lecturers and participants.

Ms Song's visit to Brazil is the first time an Observatory's staff lectured in a South American country, demonstrating our support for the developing world and to contribute to the improvement of public weather services in the international meteorological community. 

Ms. Song giving lecture to South American meteorologists

Ms Song conducting a media interview practical session for a participant from Uruguay