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Taiwan’s T-CERT Program Equips Civilians With Life-Saving Emergency Response Skills
In earthquake-prone Taiwan, civilian volunteers are taking emergency response into their own hands through a government-backed initiative called the Taiwan Community Emergency Response Team, or T-CERT for short.
Launched in 2024, the T-CERT program is designed to equip everyday citizens with professional-level disaster response training. The goal: to reduce damage and save lives in the crucial hours before official rescue teams arrive—often three to six hours after disaster strikes.
"The real important point is that civilians must first find ways to help themselves and then help others. Then finally the official teams get involved," said Yeh Ting-lin, a T-CERT instructor and firefighter.
Participants are trained to handle high-pressure emergency situations, including earthquake response protocols such as “drop, take cover, hold on,” and basic search and rescue operations. They learn to assess the scope of disaster zones and administer initial medical care until professional help arrives.
"They need to learn how to evaluate the scope and the severity of the disaster area, and then they need to learn how to do the very initial and the very basic light rescue," said Wang Jieh-jiuh, principal investigator of the T-CERT project. "So we will give them the very best technique to save people during the emergency. And when we save the people out and get people out, they need to do some medical treatment."
The program is open to all willing participants regardless of age, gender or background.
"No matter your age, no matter your sex, no matter your belief, everybody can join," Wang added. "During an emergency, maybe the elder people, they are not able to do something but they can be logistic people. They can help to maybe register for the checklist to see if someone is outside. People can do everything they can do."
Willian Chien, a trained T-CERT member, emphasized the psychological benefits of training. "Anyone would panic for sure [in an emergency]. But after undergoing training, going along with our usual drills, we can get panic down to a minimum. You go through the drills over again in your mind and the results of the training come out."
Currently, Taiwan has 190 T-CERT teams, with at least three in every city and county. The government aims to train 80 additional teams each year, steadily expanding community resilience nationwide.
Experts say the program is a step in the right direction toward fostering a culture of preparedness. While challenges remain in scaling the initiative to all corners of the island, the T-CERT model is already proving to be a vital part of Taiwan’s emergency response framework.
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