Red Cross ‘will seek keen local support’ |27 February 2013
The local society hopes to use the knowledge its members will gain from the three-day workshop to tap the potential and willingness to help, which donors showed in response to the Red Cross Society of Seychelles’ (RCSS) call for support after the Seychelles January 27 disaster.
RCSS president Barbara Carolus-André said this in an interview with Nation yesterday after Health Minister Mitcy Larue launched the event at the Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay resort.
It has been organised by the RCSS and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies under the name: Regional conference on resource mobilisation.
Its delegates come from Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros, Burundi and Seychelles.
“We in Seychelles have always got help from the federation and other societies but have not been tapping much locally but now donors have many other causes so we have to look and see what we can do nationally to mobilise our own resources,” said Mrs Carolus-André.
“Since aid has been easily available from outside we did not make much effort to get some locally but now that there are so many other issues and the amount of overseas support is dropping we have to mobilise and manage our resources better,” she told Nation.
She said the response for the Red Cross’ call for aid after the January 27 disaster “was simply amazing”.
“People have been responding in a manner that shows how generous the Seychellois people really are.”
The organisers said the Indian Ocean zone Red Cross Societies have identified resource mobilisation as one of their priorities in carrying out successful humanitarian effort throughout the world.
“As a humanitarian organisation we dedicate a large amount of our resources to train volunteers.
“We in the region have to be more refined in our approaches and intensify efforts to mobilise resources and to become self dependent so we can cope with the growing demand for resources,” RCSS communications coordinator Maria Fanchette said in a statement.
She said with the increasing costs of operations, the offices and more of the organisation’s infrastructure need to be highly maintained and the national societies are to depend on their resources to respond to the increasing demands.
“So the culture of depending on donors is slowly disappearing as it is becoming very hard to get large support from donors. These are precisely the reasons why such a workshop is expected to help the national societies to step up their effort in this domain.”
Minister Larue said it is good to come together the way the delegates have gathered so as to find solutions to problems affecting several regions, like diseases, disasters and poverty.
She thanked representatives of the countries present for coming together to boost the training plan.
Saying the Indian Ocean Region is always close to our heart, Mrs Larue thanked the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for hosting the conference here.