Since 1985, International Volunteer Day (IVD) is being observed on 5th December every year to promote volunteerism, encourage governments to support volunteer efforts and recognize volunteer contributions at local, national and international level. The theme of IVD-2020 is “Together We Can through volunteering”. In Pakistan, volunteers are associated with different national and international organizations like Rescue Service 1122, Pakistan Red Crescent, Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Association, UNV and VSO Pakistan etc. Salute to all volunteers who contributed to make their communities more resilient against natural and human induced disasters.
Every Year, one of the best bond of volunteers with Rescue Service 1122 is being observed in National Community Emergency Response Team(CERT) /Volunteer Challenge held at Emergency Services Academy Lahore, where volunteer teams across country have been provided equal opportunity to exhibit disaster response skills in the competition. In this regard, 4th National CERTs Challenge has been organized at Academy from 2nd to 4th December 2020. The winner Volunteer team of inter UCs competition participated as district representative volunteer team in the National Challenge. The designated team of evaluators from Academy evaluated Community Action for Disaster Response Skills (CADRE) Skills of all volunteer teams. This initiative to promote volunteerism was taken by Director General Rescue Service Dr Rizwan Naseer to mobilize the power of humanity for developing disaster resilient and transform the communities in Pakistan through an effective and pragmatic involvement of volunteers under Community Safety Program. In order to achieve the objectives for safer communities, over 5000 CERTs were established in all Union Councils of Punjab as per provision of Punjab Emergency Service Act 2006 and raised awareness to 1 million volunteers on saving lives and promoting safety.
Volunteering means giving services free of cost or Fee Sabeelillah (In the way of Allah) should be priority of all professionals like doctors, teachers, lawyers, engineers and experts of different fields as together we can through volunteering can create a visible difference for developing healthy safe resilient communities in Pakistan. As the volunteers are driven by a desire to contribute to the well-being of their society, without expectation of material reward, and their efforts promote civic values and social cohesion, so concerned organizations should give them proper right to assist them with recognition like Rescue 1122 volunteers. Rescue Stations had been declared as Community Rescue Stations to provide CERTs (Rescue Scouts) an opportunity to utilize Rescue infrastructure across Punjab for work voluntarily with Emergency Service to transform their communities. These Rescue Scouts are performing their duties in emergency response, awareness raising, imparting training and conducting safety surveys after getting essential emergency and disaster management trainings from certified rescue trainers. The purpose of all these activities is to provide a platform to Rescue Scouts at Government level and bridge up the gap between government and communities as District Emergency Officer of any district is Secretary of District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) and he can also present communities issues in District Emergency Board (DEB) meeting headed by concerned Deputy Commissioner of the district, which needs government interventions.
During COVID-19 volunteers assisted Rescue Service for around 50,000 Ration Pack distribution to deserving families and awareness raising. I would like to acknowledge the support of VSO Pakistan for capacity building of CERTs with kits, training of Rescue Officers on WASH program during COVID-19 and organizing CERTs challenge. Boy Scouts and Girl Guides movement is being revived by Ch Muhammad Sarwar Honorable Governor Punjab and Mrs Parveen Sarwar President Punjab Girl Guides Association, whereas Pakistan Red Cross also have huge network of volunteers linked with international network. All such volunteer forums need to work together and put joint efforts to transform their respective communities for better living of our future generations.
Rescue Service has launched RESCUE CADET CORPS (RCC) APP to digitalize all volunteer data and provide them opportunity for online registration and training. This app would further help in coordination, deployment of volunteers in case of emergency and disaster and online monitoring. You all can join RCC by registration as Rescue Scout and get online training on five basic modules of Community Safety Training Course. These modules includes first aid, fire safety, road safety, healthy and clean Pakistan and clean environment. The successful participants shall be engaged with nearest Community Rescue Stations for hands on practice of life saving skills and further deployment for safety promotion activities. Furthermore, advance trainings shall also be organized by Rescue Service free of cost to enhance their preparedness, response and prevention skills. Congratulations to all volunteer teams participated in National CERT Challenge and special appreciation for top three Winning districts. Many congrats to their DEOs and RSOs and teams who worked hard to achieve this recognition but all teams performed well so no need to be discouraged, who didn’t get position. Remember! Volunteer efforts never get wasted, as it develops trust among the society, develop strong linkages between groups, enhance harmony and limits the distance. I pay rich tribute to all volunteers for their continuous motivation valuable contribution being responsible citizen of their community. Salute to all Volunteers.
The writers is the Head of Community Safety & Information, Rescue 1122 Punjab
