Red Cross begins new phase of disaster project

Tamale,– The Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS) has begun a new phase of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation (DRR/CCA) project to strengthen resilience to disasters for communities in the Northern, North East, Savannah, and Upper East Regions.

The new phase of the project dubbed: “Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation and Institutional Preparedness” (DRR/CCA/IP), which runs from now until 2024, seeks to ensure that disaster management systems and structures are established in new communities and sustained in the existing communities in the four regions.

It is also to ensure that exposure and vulnerability to risks related to climate, natural, and health hazards are reduced in 160 communities in the four regions.

It is being implemented by the GRCS in partnership with the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and funded by the Swiss Red Cross.

This new phase of the project comes on the heels of the DRR and CCA project implemented from 2018 to 2020 in the Northern and Upper East Regions by the same partners where 90 Community Disaster Preparedness and Response Teams were formed, and trained in collaboration with NADMO, Ghana Fire Service, Ghana Police Service, Forestry Commission and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and equipped with necessary working tools to enhance their capacities in disaster resilience and response.

Under this new phase of the project, which is an expansion of the previous one, the partners will continue to train communities, equip them with necessary working tools to amongst other things ensure effective disaster management.

Mr Samuel Kofi Addo, Secretary General of GRCS, who spoke at an inception meeting for the new phase of the DRR/CCA/IP project, said it was an expansion of, “The work that we are doing; more commitment, and more community engagement to manage disasters.”

The two-day inception meeting, which ended in Tamale, was attended by representatives from the GRCS, and NADMO, drawn from the four regions and the Swiss Red Cross to collaborate and plan ahead together for the successful implementation of the new phase of the project.

Disasters such as rainstorms and floods have become perennial in the northern part of the country causing destruction to property and sometimes resulting in loss of lives.

Mr Addo called for the creation of regional disaster platforms to mobilise resources to ensure that relief items were always ready to present to disaster victims within 48 hours of the occurrence of the disaster and said early presentation of relief items made more impact than the late presentation of such items to disaster victims.

Alhaji Abdallah Abdul-Mumin, Northern Regional Director of NADMO lauded the new phase of the project and said it was very vital in ensuring the resilience of communities to withstand disasters in the country.

He commended the GRCS and the Swiss Red Cross for their continued efforts to complement the efforts of the government in the area of disaster management.

Mr Thomas Okollah, Country Coordinator, Swiss Red Cross, emphasised the need for proactiveness in disaster management and said “It is not about doing, but doing it well. That is ensuring that we meet the standards, the humanitarian standards and ensuring that we give the people that we serve the dignity that they deserve.”

Mr Okollah said the partners would expect a lot from the communities, adding “We expect participation from the communities. The communities have resources, which have not been harnessed and our work is to work with them to harness those resources, identify where they are lacking in terms of DRR and CCA.

“We are not going to bring everything but we are going to take stock of what they have and add on to that which they need to make complete so that they can have better systems to these disasters.”

Source: Ghana News Agency