Pakistani scouts get Turkish aid agency training in rescue, disaster management

7-day training begins in Karachi on Monday

KARACHI:

Turkey's state-run aid agency on Monday launched a seven-day program in Karachi to train Pakistani scouts and rescuers in the latest techniques and ways of rescue and disaster management.

Under the program billed "Emergency Rescue and Disaster Management" and launched by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), several training sessions will be held across the country's commercial capital over the next week.

Speaking at the program held at Sindh Scouts Gulshan Training Center, Turkish Consul General Cemal Sangu said that the disasters experienced in Pakistan, Turkey and recently in Libya and Morocco further increased the importance of search and rescue activities. Therefore, he stated that this training program is very important for both Turkey and Pakistan and thanked all the institutions that contributed to the organization of the activity.

Recalling the assistance of Pakistani and Turkish relief agencies during last year's unprecedented floods in Pakistan and massive earthquakes in southern Turkey in February this year, Sangu said the two countries have stood beside each other in testing times.

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Deputy Commissioner of Sindh Boys Scouts Association Hassan Feroz said the local rescuers will learn from the experience of Turkish rescue and relief agencies through this program.

TIKA's Karachi Coordinator Khalil Ibrahim Basran said the program is the continuation of similar trainings imparted by the agency in Bosnia, Bangladesh, and Libya in recent months.

Pakistan is among the top 10 countries vulnerable to climate change. Unrelenting rains-triggered floods last year inundated a third of the country, aside from killing over 1,700 people and causing whopping losses of $32 billion.