Abrar exhorts youth to promote culture of hygiene

Islamabad : The impact of COVID-19 particularly demands actions and measures for improvement in health, environment and food systems. Pakistan’s youth should work towards this end by promoting a culture of health and hygiene across the country, utilising their education and entrepreneurial skills.

The Chairman of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Abrar ul Haq expressed these views while addressing volunteers attending a webinar held in connection with International Youth Day here at the PRCS National Headquarters on Thursday.

More than 5000 youth and volunteers from different districts of Punjab, Sindh, Balochsitan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Merged Areas (FATA), Gilgit Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad attended the webinar. PRCS Secretary General Dr. Adeel Nawaz and other officers were also present.

Addressing the participants, Abrar said, PRCS volunteers have strong community acceptance; they are agents of behavior change and have always played an effective role in changing the minds of people during awareness campaigns, thereby promoting a culture of peace, tolerance and non-violence through community watch.

The PRCS chairman said, the unique idea of ‘Muhafiz Force,’ comprising trained volunteers, benefitted 96,000 households across the country, providing food and health advice to more than 600,000 people. “PRCS volunteers collected food from philanthropists and affording communities and passed it on to the poor families; the idea was appreciated by the US media and declared as the most workable solution to the subject,” he added. Abrar directed PRCS programme heads and officers to focus on further capacity-building of volunteers, in particular during the COVID-19 pandemic and in its aftermath.

In the end, Abrar administered a pledge to volunteers under the theme of International Youth Day. Earlier, Dr. Nosheen Abbas, Head of the Department of Nutrition at PAF Hospital, gave a presentation on wellness and eating habits in youth.