Pakistan Red Crescent-Sindh, in collaboration with the German Red Cross organized a seminar to commemorate the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) with the participation of various renowned institutions here on Monday in a local hotel. The focus of this year's IDDR theme is "Live to Tell: Raising Awareness, reducing mortality".
Shamim Mumtaz, Minister Social Welfare Sindh as chief guest urging all stockholders working for public welfare to join hands to deal with natural disasters in future, said the PRC-Sindh is a humanitarian organisation dedicated to improving lives of vulnerable segments of society.
She uttered that responding agencies were always present in urban areas, but their capacity and action had been more effective in rural areas despite complex urban contexts. Now the time has come that all stakeholders should be alert on rural as well as urban disasters, she emphasised.
She said that Girl Guide and civil defence systems should be reinforced and improved to save lives during such calamities. "I will also write an official letter to chief minister Sindh in this regard. There should be five to ten trauma centres at super highway and in the city," she added. Chairperson Pakistan Red Crescent-Sindh, Farzana Naek said the PRC-Sindh always helped most vulnerable people in time of natural or man-made disasters. In Karachi, Thatta, Badin, Jacobabad, Jamshoro, Sanghar, Tharparkar and other districts, emergency & disaster response teams consisting of trained volunteers had been introduced to deal with any disaster, she added.
Farzana Naek further said that the seminar provided a platform to all agencies of disaster management to prepare them and build safer communities. "Resilience must be about building stronger societies today to prepare for tomorrow and for this, sharing of traditional, indigenous and local knowledge is very important along with advocacy, she added.-PR