By Julius Mugaga Tukacungurwa/ Umoja Standard.
Kampala, Uganda: On Monday, the Uganda Red Cross Society volunteers physically hit major roundabouts and junctions in and around Kampala City with key messages on placards linking to saving humanity. The messages were majorly inclined on road safety but also other aspects like environment.
This comes after the institution has celebrated 60 years of service to humanity. During the celebrations, the Society conceived an idea of running the ‘Humanity Needs You’ aimed at tackling diverse needs of humanity that is around protecting lives and health and to ensure respect for the human being.
Speaking to journalists during the activity at Wampeewo Round about on Jinja Road, Robert Kwesiga the Secretary General of Uganda Red Cross Society stressed that it was necessary with belief that when you are driving or sitting in a car, you can read that message. You can read that message and get to know that humanity needs you.
In this endeavor, Mr. Kwesiga revealed that the different themes are derived from the mandate of Red Cross which is serving humanity, that is to say, saving lives, and making life better, increasing people’s dignity is something that one can’t say that it is done and it is on the low side but it is on the increase and even getting more complicated and so the rallying call of serving humanity remains central on a daily basis.
“Today we run a newspaper supplement, we are telling the public that humanity needs you and we are going to continue with different activities of spectrum of what we do and how the public can work with us and the climax, which will be later in the year, is around setting up what we call a Red Cross humanitarian fund.” He revealed.
“In this Red Cross humanitarian fund, we are going to open it and there are very strict accountability and transparent measures with board of trustees, with an international firm managing it, and we are telling each one of us that make a contribution because the emergency the Red Cross responds to, the preparedness the Red Cross works on, the other action, the mitigation needs resources and those resources can be incrementally be made by each one of us making a contribution. This fund will crown this sixth celebration and we can be in a better position to do more, do better and serve humanity. There is also an environment aspect in all of the things.” He added
On the environment aspect, MrKwesiga highlighted that almost every emergency that happens in this world today has a relationship with the environment, has a relationship with climate change, it is about fighting for resources, it is about fighting for economic power and to do that, you need the environment, you need the climate, you need the human resources of this world.
He noted that climate change is at the center and so, ‘the various themes we are running, climate change remains central in whatever we are going to be promoting, but also remains central to the way we project how we are going to be reaching out and serving humanity.’
He mentioned that there is an aspect of road safety awareness arguing that people must be aware that road safety is not a privilege but a must and in this they have a program where they train the emergency responders. which includes first aiders but also community responders.
“In case it happens, how do we move fast?, the public makes a contribution to saving lives and so, on top of all that we have a fleet of ambulances which are stationed in the mapped out areas which are called the black spots. We execute this program in collaboration with government, police, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Works and all the various actors to save lives.” he noted.
Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) launched the “Humanity Needs You” campaign early in July, 2024 with an aim of making a call to the public urging the public to join the Society in making a positive impact across the country. This campaign aims to engage the public in supporting Uganda Red Cross Society initiatives, raise funds for various programs, and educate people about the organization’s crucial role in Uganda.
