This report covers the period 1 July 2009 to 31 December 2009.
In brief
Programme purpose: The purpose of disaster management is to reduce the number of deaths, injuries and impact from disasters.
The overall purpose of the health and care programme is to improve the Indian Red Cross Society's (IRCS) capacity in planning to raise awareness on the preventive health needs and responding to public health emergencies, including HIV/AIDS, through prevention, care and support by strengthening the Red Cross volunteer (RCV) network.
IRCS has improved capacity to provide effective services to reduce suffering of the vulnerable people by integrating it with disaster management, health and other programmes of the national society, and working with the International Commitee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and partner national societies to achieve Global Agenda Goal 3.
To enhance understanding of the Red Cross Red Crescent principles and values in the national society and improve its integration in disaster management, health and organizational development programmes.
Programme summary: During the reporting period, very good implementation of the activities has been witnessed. More stress has been given on the community awareness, strengthening of the national disaster response mechanism and networking with national and international non-governmental organizations. Recent floods in October have given an opportunity to test the real increment in the disaster response capacity of IRCS. The proper utilization of human and material recourses has enabled IRCS to assist more than 100,000 people through its flood relief operation in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
The country witnessed quite a few emergencies, including H1N1 influenza and heavy monsoon flooding in different parts of the country, resulting in loss of lives and property and affecting millions of people. India is India grappling with the H1N1 virus which has claimed over 558 lives. Under the health and care programme, significant progress was made under the Red Cross volunteer's initiative. The HIV programme was implemented as planned with a good implementation rate and in early 2010 the end-term evaluation will be carried out by Swedish Red Cross for the regional HIV programme. Two new programme implementation - the human pandemic preparedness (H2P) programme and the India tuberculosis (TB) programme - started from 1 October 2009.
IRCS has improved capacity to provide effective services to reduce suffering of the vulnerable people by integrating it with disaster management, health and other programmes of the national society, and working with ICRC and partner national societies to achieve Global Agenda Goal 3.