Rally in response to International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction
(Baonghean.vn) - On the morning of October 12, in Vinh City, the Vietnam Red Cross Society held a rally in response to the International Day for Disaster Reduction (October 13), with the theme "Safety for Every Home".
 |
| Heavy rains over the past two days have caused landslides to 10 houses in the mountainous district of Anh Son. Many families suffered property damage. In the photo: A house was buried by rocks. Photo courtesy |
Attending the ceremony were comrade Phan Dien - former member of the Politburo, Standing member of the Secretariat, Chairman of the Management Board of the Central Region Disaster Prevention Fund; Pham Hong Quang - Chief of Office of the General Department of Disaster Prevention, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee; Ms. Julia - representative of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the Asia-Pacific region; representatives of the Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Search and Rescue, Red Cross Societies of 30 key disaster-hit provinces and cities nationwide. |
In 1989, the United Nations chose October 13 every year as the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, with the aim of raising awareness and community action in implementing measures to minimize losses from increasingly serious natural disasters on a global scale.
Since 2014, the Vietnam Red Cross Society has been sponsored by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to organize rallies, publish disaster reports, and respond to the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.
 |
| Delegates attending the rally. Photo: Thanh Son |
The 2017 National Day for Disaster Risk Reduction was organized with a series of activities: rallies, workshops, activities to support specific subjects and training for communicators on the rights, roles and responsibilities of the community in disaster prevention and control.
Opening the ceremony, Mr. Tran Quoc Hung - Vice President of the Vietnam Red Cross Society affirmed: The Vietnam Red Cross Society is playing an increasingly important role in supporting people to participate in natural disaster prevention and effectively participating with local levels, sectors and organizations to overcome the consequences caused by natural disasters.
 |
| Vice President of the Vietnam Red Cross Society Tran Quoc Hung affirmed: The Society is committed to promoting awareness and responsibility of the community for disaster prevention and response activities. Photo: Thanh Son |
In the coming time, the Association commits to promoting the raising of awareness and responsibility of the community for participating in disaster prevention and response activities; implementing focused and key activities when natural disasters and catastrophes occur; improving the quality of logistics work, promoting internal factors in resource mobilization; strengthening and expanding international cooperation, coordinating with relevant ministries, departments and organizations to prevent and respond to disasters.
 |
| The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee hopes that Nghe An will continue to receive companionship, support and assistance in the work of preventing and mitigating risks of natural disasters and catastrophes. Photo: Thanh Son |
Vietnam is one of the five countries that have been and are being most severely affected by natural disasters and climate change. Nghe An province alone, from 2012 to 2016, was affected by 31 storms, 12 floods, 9 flash floods, 6 droughts, and 4 cold spells. Natural disasters killed 74 people, injured 780 people, collapsed 10,690 houses, severely damaged 35,428 houses and many traffic and irrigation works. Total damage is estimated at nearly 7,000 billion VND. |
Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee stated: To prevent and mitigate risks of natural disasters and catastrophes, Nghe An has been implementing many synchronous and effective engineering and non-engineering solutions. However, in the context of changing weather conditions and increasingly complex and unpredictable natural disasters, the losses caused to the province will still be very large.
The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee expressed his hope to continue receiving valuable support and assistance from all levels, sectors, organizations at the Central level, international organizations and other provinces so that Nghe An can continue to effectively implement the work of preventing and mitigating risks of natural disasters and catastrophes.... He requested that agencies, sectors and localities in the province further strengthen coordination of activities; effectively implement socialization in the work of preventing and responding to natural disasters and adapting to climate change.
On this occasion, the Vietnam Red Cross Society has allocated 1 billion VND to help the four provinces of Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Yen Bai, and Hoa Binh overcome the consequences of recent floods; the Hanoi Red Cross Society also donated 200 million VND to support people in the four provinces...
Within the framework of the program, right after the rally, the delegates visited and presented gifts to the families of two victims who died due to floods on October 10 and 11 in Yen Thanh and Nghi Loc districts, each gift worth 3 million VND./.
Thanh Son
