MANDALUYONG CITY -- The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) joins the entire nation in celebrating National Disaster Resilience Month this July 2021.

Since 2017, through Executive Order No. 29, July of each year is designated as 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.

“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,” said PRC Chairman and CEO Senator Richard J. Gordon.

“Most important is to have people in the communities who are trained especially in first aid and basic life support. For this year alone as of June, we already have 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. The more people trained, the better our chances are,” added Gordon.

The PRC has also built shelters for 151,643 families, responded to 120 fire incidents, and now has ongoing COVID testing and vaccination.

PRC’s fleet when it comes to disaster response is impressive as well with 780 operational vehicles that are spread all over the country. The 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.

This year, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council marked the Disaster Resilience Month celebration with the theme “Tamang pamamahala’t kahandaan, kaalaman at pagtutulungan sa sakuna at pandemya’y kalasag ng bayan”. (Philippine Red Cross)