Red Cross Sets Up Disaster Response Team

The Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS) has set up a National Disaster Response Team to respond swiftly to emergencies and disasters in the country. The Health Coordinator of the GRCS, Mr Thomas Aapore, said the team would be deployed in all the regions in the country to work with emergency relief agencies such as the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the Ghana Ambulance Service. Training Programme So far, 30 members of the team have undergone a one-week training programme on disaster and emergency situation management in Accra. The programme was meant to equip the participants with the requisite skills to effectively deal with cholera, ebola, yellow fever and other epidemics and disasters such as floods, fire outbreaks and earthquakes. It was sponsored by the Japanese Government through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC). Subject areas covered under the programme included emergency tools and coordination, social mobilisation, information assessment and data management. The rest were: communication, logistics mobilisation and government policy on disaster management and humanitarian situations. Participants In an interview with the Daily Graphic, some of the participants indicated that the training had given them more insight into emergency and disaster management.