Dr Saeed Elahi, Chairman PRC talks about Red Crescent initiatives with special focus on services at national level

DNA

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Red Crescent (PRC) Psychiatrist teams are providing psychosocial support to the families of those children who got missing besides running awareness campaigns to prevent such happenings. The teams are also distributing literatures in schools, streets, railway stations, bus stations, trade centers and other public places and encouraging people to adopt precautionary measures for safety of their children.

This was stated by the Pakistan Red Crescent Chairman while talking to DNA and Centreline.

Dr Saeed Elahi said that as blood donation is our specialty, the PRC under its Blood Donation Programme will register one hundred thousand blood donors besides establishing 121 state-of-the-art laboratories with blood donor centers across the country and the first one has started working in Islamabad.

The registration of 0.1 million blood donors is a new inclusion in our vision of achieving 5 million volunteers by 2020.

The newly established labs will be as per international standards and patients will be offered discounts on all kinds of medical tests beside provision of free of cost lab services to Thalassemia patients.

Latest technologies and up to date equipment for all sorts of lab tests will be installed in phase 1 of expansion while radiography such as X-Ray, CT scan, MRIs will also be included in phase 2 of expansion.

He said the lab in Islamabad is well equipped and capable to perform 2000 different tests. Dr Saeed Elahi said PRC will soon start blood screening tests in jails and in this regard a pilot project is already underway at Adiala Jail where around 5000 people would get benefited from lab services.

Dr Saeed said that Restoring Family Links is a key area of cooperation between the PRC and the ICRC over the years, and has been activated so that the citizens of Pakistan should greatly benefit from this program locally and internationally.

At present there was no helpline in the country where any person could get the information or assistance if any member of the family gets lost.

Under this program PRC has started the LOST helpline where any person can call to report their missing family member.

This information is immediately matched with data, collected by PRC, of all unattended and unidentified persons reporting to the hospitals due to any accident, emergency or a disaster. Similarly the other National Societies shall be requested for locating any Pakistani missing in any foreign country.

Giving further details, he said the PRC launched Lost Helpline 1030 service by establishing RFL Help desks in all the major hospitals of major cities. Dr Saeed Elahi said that RFL program is running effectively and efficiently and will be extended to all other districts of the province in coming days.

He said that PRC took an initiative by signing a ‘Charter of Humanity’ with ‘Ittehad Tanzemat e Madaris Pakistan (A representative body of all religious school of thoughts). Under the Charter, PRC plans to positively engage the religious community for effective implementation of preventive health care and blood donation advocacy and activities.

Hence PRC shall launch its nationwide drive for a safe and healthy Pakistan (an integrated Preventive Health Care/Risk Reduction Program with the RC RC Movement and through Charter of Humanity with ITM and Volunteers).

He said that National Ambulance Service College has been established in collaboration with National Ambulance Service College of Ireland shall greatly help in producing emergency paramedics as per international standards.

Under the Road Safety Program PRC would have one person in all major Teaching and District Headquarters for collection of information regarding trauma to find out the exact causes of road crashes in Pakistan so that advocacy can be done for improvement of road safety laws, better enforcement and implementation of IFRC global road safety initiatives.

Pakistan Red Crescent launched a landmark Women’s Forum at its National Headquarters in Islamabad that was launched by the First Lady Begum Mamnoon Hussain.

The Forum addresses the specific experiences of Pakistani women and girls in times of disaster (whether natural or human induced), such as distinct healthcare needs in emergencies, or vulnerabilities due to early warnings that do not reach women while they are at home.

The Pakistan Red Crescent is the most far-reaching humanitarian organization in Pakistan. Through its network of branches the national society helps people affected by frequent earthquakes, floods, landslides and manmade catastrophes that regularly impact the country.

Red Crescent staff has noted that the particular experiences of women and girls in disasters in Pakistan bear more attention and action. The forum shows that while Pakistan is a diverse country, women and girls face some common humanitarian challenges.

The forum will continue beyond the event itself. Comprised of a vibrant community of women who strive to advance the Pakistan Red Crescent’s humanitarian mission by giving time and talent to assist women, the forum won’t end at Pakistan’s borders either. The Red Crescent aims to engage women locally, nationally and internationally.

“It is a platform for members to participate in awareness drives on health, education programmes and to strive for greater empowerment of women,” said Dr Saeed Elahi, the Chairman of Pakistan Red Crescent.

The forum will focus on special measures for gender justice, diversity, and equality, and women’s and girls’ empowerment especially for those living in remote, underdeveloped, environmentally challenged or disaster prone areas. Themes will include women’s reproductive health rights, economic empowerment, and vulnerability in disasters, gender bias and discrimination.

As champions of women’s empowerment, members of the forum will learn about a range of issues including gender-based violence, stress management and trauma counseling as well as how to conduct public events and vocational training.