School safety initiatives need of the hour: Governor Ebad

Karachi

Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad on Tuesday appreciated the School Safety Programme initiated by the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Sindh in the wake of a prevailing threat of a terrorist attack on educational institutions.

“The programme was the need of the hour so as to protect precious human lives in case of any mishap or any untoward incident,” the Governor noted during a meeting, held at the Governor House, with a delegation of the PRCS, led by its chairperson Farzana Naik.

Briefing the Governor regarding the details of the programme, Farzana said that around 200 schools would be included in the programme where the students and teachers would be provided training. The project would continue till December 2017, she added.

Ebad while lauding the society’s efforts called for specifically emphasising on schools which had a large number of students.

He also asked to ensure all schools had proper fire fighting equipments as well as emergency exit and entry points, so as to ensure safety of students and teachers alike.

He also appreciated the PRCS for establishing an emergency operation centre (EOC), and added that the centre would prove helpful in facilitating and guiding people of Sindh in case of any emergency.

Ebad added that NGOs, working in the field of health care had performed exceptionally well in providing health care facilities to locals, especially in far flung areas of the province where there were no facilities available.

He claimed the government had also prioritised provision of better healthcare facilities to the people of the province for which specialist doctors, paramedics and medical equipment had been arranged for hospitals.

Speaking of the expansion of a maternity home in Orangi Town, the Governor claimed that all bottlenecks would be removed and it would be developed into a state of the art health facility.