Red Cross urged to help prevent disasters

Page 55, July 28, 2008
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah & Sandra Amartey
THE Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, has challenged members of the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies to work towards the prevention of disasters in the society.
“It is unfortunate that we hear of Red Cross and Red Crescent only in times of war, chaos and disasters. We must realise that in our present circumstances, these demands are changing. We must be working more towards prevention,” he said.
He said this in an address at the Fourth General Assembly and Joint Partners meeting of the New Partnership for African Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies (NEPARC) in Accra last Friday.
The three-day meeting is being attended by representatives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent from member countries across Africa.
In an address read on his behalf by the Deputy Minister of Health, Mr Abraham Dwuma Odoom, Alhaji Aliu noted that there was the need for the Red Cross Society (RCS) to re-orient its services and seek partnership with established institutions that had experience in the field of disaster prevention.
He stated that the Geneva Conventions and its successor convention, which were direct results of Red Cross movement, continued “to remind us of our collective responsibility towards peace and the need to respect one another”.
The Vice-President stated that Ghanaians experienced the worth of the Red Cross during the recent devastating floods in the northern parts of the country.
He recounted that the society, supported by the International Federation of the Red Cross, played a very important role in assisting over 1,000 households with food and other relief items.
Alhaji Aliu said the Red Cross also constructed about 375 two-unit houses for some families while nearly 1,000 families had also been supported in the Upper East Region as a result of the Bawku conflict.
He explained that lessons that could be learnt from these gestures had taught Ghanaians not only about the value of humanitarian services but more importantly the need to develop enduring partnership in times of disasters.
Alhaji Aliu called for the support of faith-based organisations, private sector organisations and the government to enable the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies to meet the ever increasing demands on them.
Alhaji Aliu asked members of the Red Cross in the country to be agents of change by spreading the message of healthy lifestyles to promote good health and prevent diseases.
In his welcoming address, the President of the Ghana Red Cross Society, Professor Stephen Adei, noted that with the present global phenomenon of climate change and its adverse effects on sustainable livelihoods, almost everybody and every country was at risk.
He said it was for that and other reasons that the formation of a body like NEPARC became very relevant, adding that the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies would always work towards the prevention of disasters.
The President of the Ugandan Red Cross and NEPARC, Mr Tom Buruku, stated that NEPARC was established to address the current challenges such as poor governance, the escalating dependency levels to sustain basic services and the continued marginalisation facing African national societies.