25 April 2006

Islamabad, Pakistan: Volunteers who served during the rescue and relief operations after the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan were honoured and awarded at a ceremony held here on Monday. Chairman of the country’s National Volunteer Movement (NVM), Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani, gave away prizes and certificates.

Senator Durrani, who is also Special Assistant to the Pakistani Prime Minister, said Pakistan is a nation of altruistic volunteers and from President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to the common man, everybody worked diligently almost 18 hours a day for the rescue and rehabilitation of the earthquake victims.

He said NVM, along with international organizations and NGOs, will train, equip and organize millions of enthusiastic volunteers willing to help people affected in the 8 October earthquake.

The training of volunteers in the fields of reconstruction, rehabilitation, rescue, trauma counselling, camp hygiene, environmental safety and other health-related issues is imperative to meet out future disastrous situations, he added.

"Though the Pakistani nation had no past experience of disaster management before October 8, 2005, the calamity of earthquake rediscovered patriotism, service to fellow human beings and safeguarding the Muslim Ummah. Now we have to keep these sacred feelings intact. We have to organize millions of volunteers who are ready to volunteer their precious time for serving the mankind," he said.

Senator Durrani said that the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) could play a leading role in providing a platform and train the national volunteers. He urged the Red Crescent to initiate such kind of activities in future also. He said the NVM can gather millions of enthusiastic volunteers who can be rallied within days. "The issue is not about the number rather it is the organization of the volunteer movement and for this PRCS in collaboration with the government can play a catalytic role," he added.

Speaking on the occasion, PRCS chairman Lt. General (retired) Jahan Dad Khan requested the government to financially support the societies like Red Crescent for capacity building so that they can play a better role in case of any mishap happens in future instead of looking for others for help.

He said PRCS, with the support of its partners, had been involved in a massive relief operation in the earthquake-affected areas. He said that the geographical spread of the area, harsh winter and difficult terrain pose a special challenge to the relief efforts.

Elaborating the lessons learnt by PRCS, Khan said that there is a dire need of having a large base of trained volunteers, community participation, building local capacities, better data management and sharing of information at all level and balanced coverage of relief activities by media. He said that Red Crescent Society owes a lot to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), different national societies and volunteers for their generous support and invaluable services.