KARACHI: The floods in the past two years have made members of the civil society and NGOs aware of the fact that the government alone cannot alleviate the misery of victims once disaster strikes.
The Al-Khidmat Foundation organised a conference titled ‘Share the Hope’ on Sunday in which the need to establish a disaster cell comprising NGOs and media organisations was discussed.
The event took place at the Pearl Continental Hotel, where members of the civil society and representatives of various charity as well as media organisations gathered to discuss the possibility of such an endeavour.
The chief patron of Al-Khidmat Foundation and former mayor of Karachi, Naimatullah Khan, headed the conference and said that the foundation is ready to take initiative, but the owners of the media organisations need to be taken on board as well.
“There should be a platform through which the NGOs and media personnel can coordinate and share the information during an emergency situation,” he said.
The president of the foundation, Dr Hafeezur Rehman, told the audience that a fund of Rs50 million has already been set aside in anticipation of the upcoming rains and possible floods.
The conference was attended by the representatives of a number of organisations, including Hussaini Blood Bank, Shehri-CBE, Umair Sana Foundation, Pakistan Islamic Medical Association and Child Life Foundation.
Among media personnel who were present on the occasion were Wusatullah Khan from BBC Urdu, Mujahid Barelvi from CNBC, Rizwan Jaffer from Waqt News, Waseem Badami from ARY News and Shazia Khan from Samaa TV.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2012.
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