Canada Red Cross President Vows To Strengthen Partnership With Ethiopian Red Cross Society

Conrad Sauvé President and Chief Executive Officer of Canada Red Cross (CRC) visited Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS) and held discussion with ERCS board and management on ways to strengthen partnership on disaster management capacity building. 

During his discussion Conrad Sauvé said that, “it is an honor to be here in Ethiopia- a country that has so much history and heritage; we are also very proud to be a partner with ERCS on disaster management whereby we want to partner and support you in training but at the end of the day it is all about improving disaster management interventions in a massive response scale.” 

Dr. Ahmed Reja President of ERCS on his part said that “we are extremely happy to partner with the CRC in the area of capacity building which is very timely because ERCS is in a continuous process improvement to become modern, efficient and effective national society; that we want to come out of the traditional way of doing things and come up with innovative ways of improving what we could do.” 

The president added that “you have come at the very critical moment of our nation where close to six million people are in need of emergency aid; as you have observed the situation, the government and ERCS are doing their level best to alleviate this suffering of the people yet we still need international collaborations and partnerships to help us alleviate this suffering of the people.” 

Hossam Elsharkawi Vice President of International Operations at CRC also said that “we invest in disaster management and disaster management capacity building like Strengthening Emergency Response in Africa (SERA) project; and we have the vision from local to the global in which the best and most efficient responders we believe are local national societies but, if disasters are overwhelming and international assistance is required, we are also ready to provide the international surge if called upon and if needed.” 

ERCS and CRC high level delegates also discussed organizational governance and management, organizational structure, volunteers’ management, use of technology and fund raising issues among others. 

The delegation also visited Kindo Koysha district one of the Wolayata Zone strike by current disaster and responded to play their own role to alleviate water problem in the woreda. Globally, Canada Red Cross delegation is currently present in 15 different countries including Ethiopia.