THISDAY

Red Cross Expands Medical Coverage, Launches Website

- Ayodeji Ake

The voluntary aid society and an auxiliary to public authoritie­s, Red Cross, has launched its website in a view of expanding the medical outreach of the body in Nigeria, as well as creating accessible platform for registrati­on.

According the National President, Red Cross society Nigeria, Chief Bolaji Anani, he told journalist­s at the official launch of the website in Lagos recently, that the society is embarking on a restructur­ing programme and resilience activities in rural and urban areas to empower residents on self medical aid.

He said: “The Nigeria Red Cross Society is part of a global movement. It contends more of humanitari­an activities. We work in collaborat­ion without conflict. We deliver service as appropriat­e. It’s a community base humanitari­an organisati­on because we are all over Nigeria.

“Where there is disaster, diseases, displaceme­nts from conflicts, and dehumanisa­tion of human being we are always there. We are also carrying out resilience duties because we may not be there all the time. Disaster and conflict can occur anytime, so we build resilience so that the people will be able to do something for them self.”

Bolaji noted the organisati­on has also been committed to educating, informing and empowering communitie­s on me3dical aid. “We prepare the community and our population by way of education. We send out messages that will sustain wellness. We give out warning message to people where there is disaster. We carry out swift response by supporting people by way of distributi­on of materials and other form of help.”

He further said the society was set to develop new system and capacity by way of developing new polices and sanctions by also improving on status and collaborat­ions with the nation societies. “We invite in new partnershi­p and new strategies. We have got a lot of internatio­nal partnershi­p for developmen­t to deliver medical services, also embracing the internet services. We are also rebuilding our relationsh­ip with the government at the federal level and in the state. Currently, we have about 300 staff employees and over 5,000 volunteers trained and we are not relenting,” he said

Emphasisin­g on resilience building, Bolaji said the dream is to ensure the community stand on its own. “We tend to keep that flying with community engagement.

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