Miami.– After a record two Category 5 hurricanes last year, World Vision is pre-positioning supplies and preparing communities across the Caribbean and Latin America for this summer's storms and other natural disasters.

Disaster preparation is a critical part of the child-focused aid agency's emergency response program, which last year responded to some 85 disasters worldwide.

"We are using all the tools and new ideas we can to be prepared to be on the frontlines," said Jose Nelson Chavez, a World Vision emergency response coordinator based in El Salvador. "We are implementing the most important lessons learned from emergency responses in other parts of the world."

To minimize damage from hurricanes, World Vision is: Training communities in disaster preparation and response, including villagers in Guatemala who learned disaster mitigation and relief techniques and received first-aid kits, stretchers and instructional posters about natural disasters.

Pre-positioning emergency relief materials in six vulnerable Latin American countries. Maintaining emergency supplies and equipment for up to 225,000 beneficiaries in global warehouses, including Denver –the key distribution point for Latin America.

Recovering from last season by offering long-term support to previous victims, such as psychological support to more than 1,000 children affected by Hurricane Noel in the Dominican Republic.

Training staff through disaster simulations and other tools to further develop the agency's relief capacity.

Pre-positioning supplies World Vision's global pre-positioning resource network (GPRN) is working with organizations in the Latin American and Caribbean region to pre-position emergency relief supplies in six countries as part of a pilot project within the region's emergency preparedness plan.

Four 40-foot containers, each with enough relief supplies to assist 300 families, were shipped from World Vision warehouses in Denver and Dubai to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua. Three more containers are due to arrive soon in Mexico and El Salvador.

The six pilot countries were selected based on their likelihood of being significantly affected during the hurricane season.