UoP Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Muhammad Rasul Jan was chief guest at the training. PHOTO: fb.com/CDPMP
In the wake of recent disasters, management officials, the city’s youth and locals have emphasised on the need for volunteers in society, stated a press release.
Centre for Disaster Preparedness and Management (CDPM) at the University of Peshawar (UoP) organised a three-day training event in collaboration with Youth and Volunteer Department of the Pakistan Red Crescent (PRC). The aim of the training event was to coach young people in voluntary activities, reinforce youth solidarity, promote community engagement as citizens and acknowledge their commitment to society.
Youth and Volunteer Department Assistant Director Ahmad Hussain and Youth Club President Mateeullah Yousafzai worked as training facilitators at the event. UoP Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Muhammad Rasul Jan was chief guest at the training, while Life and Environmental Sciences Faculty Dean Professor Dr Amir Nawaz Khan was the guest of honour at the occasion.
Essence of community
Speaking at the closing ceremony, Dr Amir said working as a volunteer is part and parcel of our faith. “Our religion encourages us to take on a broader role by working to improve the communities we live in,” Dr Amir said. “A proper understanding of the universality of volunteering requires the fog enveloping volunteer actions be dispersed to reveal the true extent of its contours.”
In his concluding speech, Jan said volunteering is the basis of every community. “It is because of generous volunteers that communities are able to run organisations, social services, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, run schools and set up blood banks,” he added.
According to Jan, paid employees only make up a small part of the social services network; without volunteers such endeavours would come to a standstill.
He congratulated volunteers on their training and offered them to start on services at the university. “You are not only trained to help victims of disasters,” he said. “It is your responsibility to extend help in all places. Pakistan can benefit immensely from such efforts.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2015.
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