The Philippine Red Cross (PRC), the country’s foremost humanitarian organization, joined the entire nation in celebrating National Disaster Resilience Month this July 2021.

“Bukod sa pagtulong sa panahon ng kalamidad, isinusulong rin ng Red Cross ang iba’t-ibang programa para maihanda ang bawat isa sa atin kung sakaling may kalamidad na mangyari (Apart from helping during disasters, the Red Cross also promotes various programs to prepare each of us in the event of a disaster),” said PRC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Senator Richard J. Gordon.

Since 2017, through Executive Order No. 29, July of each year is designated to a month of activities that are relevant to building disaster resilience and covers the four thematic areas of prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response, and rehabilitation and recovery.

“The most important is to have people in the communities who are trained especially in first aid and basic life support,” Gordon said.

As of June this year, Gordon said that the PRC already has 6,435 trained first aiders and a total of 13,973 Red Cross volunteers recruited.

“This is just one of our mitigation and preparedness actions when it comes to disasters,” Gordon said. “The more people trained, the better our chances are,” he added.

Moreover, Gordon noted that the PRC has also built shelters for 151,643 families, and responded to 120 fire incidents - “all that plus the COVID testing and vaccination that are currently ongoing.” Additionally, PRC’s fleet when it comes to disaster response is impressive as well with 780 operational vehicles that are spread all over the country.

PRC said its fleet includes 161 ambulance units, 143 motorcycles, 24 H20 tankers, 17 fire trucks, 13 mobile canteens, 11 rescue trucks, 5 Bakuna Bus, and 11 humvees to name a few.

For this year, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and management council marked this month’s celebration with the theme, “Tamang Pamamahala’t Kahandaan, Kaalaman at Pagtutulungan Sa Sakuna at Pandemya’y Kalasag ng Bayan.”