Red Cross Society holds general assembly meeting

Accra, Aug.8, GNA - The Ghana Red Cross Society on Wednesday said although the outcome of an audit it subjected itself to was not encouraging, it had started implementing some of the ecommendations to help it restructure its humanitarian services.

"Despite the laborious restructuring, the society continued its humanitarian services as a Red Cross national society and activities carried out in it core business areas."

At a General Assembly meeting in Accra, Mr Andrews Frimpong, Secretary-General of the society said the strategic plan was in the offing to strengthen the society and make it more viable. He said health and social services constituted the core programme of the society's activities and mentioned some of the areas under review as Guinea worm eradication child survival, HIV/AIDS, First Aid Training and Services and integrated health campaign.

On disaster preparedness and response, the society monitored the movement of refugees on the borders, particularly Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire and trained volunteers in preparedness and response approaches. Mr. Frimpong said most of the activities of the youth department came to a halt due to lack of funds, adding that resource mobilization base of the society was yet to be developed.

To this end, he said, the society was making frantic efforts to build capacity of its personnel and this had been demonstrated by the employment of a fund raising officer and a resource development committee.

Membership of the society comprises chapters, mothers' clubs and youth links, volunteers and corporate entities. Fund raising activities remained commercial, which included hiring of mattresses, tents, sale of Red Cross items, donations, membership dues and subscriptions, he said.

He said rumours and negative reports were being circulated about compromises on integrity, poor performance, and mediocre reporting formats and thus branded the society a spent force. Mr Frimpong highlighted some activities for next year as stakeholder meeting to review draft strategic and operational plans, council meeting and general assembly to approve and ratify statute. Professor Frimpong Boateng, Immediate Past President of the Society tasked the regional offices to undertake innovative projects that would generate income for their internal upkeep.

Professor Stephen Adei, elected President of the Society said though working with organizations like the red-cross was very challenging, the new executives would work harder to achieve the statutory mandate of the society.