1.6 lakh cadets to be enrolled as Red Cross volunteers

Vijayawada: Around 1,60,000 NCC cadets in the state will be motivated to enrol as Youth Red Cross Volunteers and AP Red Cross will impart necessary training in the first aid and disaster relief activities and encourages them to donate blood in emergencies.

Two reputed organisations in extending service to the needy in emergencies, AP Red Cross and NCC have signed an MoU on Thursday in this regard. Air Commodore V M Reddy, deputy director general of NCC (AP and TS) and A K Parida, retired IAS officer and general secretary of Indian Red Cross Society, AP state branch, have signed the agreement at a programme organised in Andhra Loyola College.

Speaking on the occasion, Air Commodore V M Reddy expressed his happiness in associating with the international humanitarian organisation Red Cross in service activities in the state.

He said all the NCC cadets will be encouraged to involve themselves in the humanitarian services and they should be in forefront during disasters or floods. Each NCC cadet should motivate their other friends to join as Red Cross Volunteers in extending the service network.

Parida said that this is the first time in the country that NCC and Red Cross are joining hands to strengthen the relief and service activities in nook and corner of the state. He has said that under the guidance of state Governor and president of AP Red Cross, the Andhra Pradesh Red Cross is contemplating to form One Million Red Cross Volunteers in the state with the newly launched AP Red Cross app, which can be downloaded from Google Playstore. Dr A Sridhar Reddy, state chairman, AP Red Cross, emphasised the need to imbibe service motive in the young minds and that AP Red Cross is encouraging the youth in that direction. He appealed to the NCC cadets to come forward and participate in the service programmes being organised by Red Cross for the tribals who live in interior forest areas.

B V S Kumar, State Coordinator for AP Red Cross Blood Banks and Projects, said that AP Red Cross is also planning to conduct first aid and CPR trainings across the state and increasing the number of trainers in each district with more training of trainers programmes.

The programme was attended by Col Sabyasachi Das, Col Sanjay Gupta, Col Balinder Singh, Captain R S Rao, Col Sanjay Tanwar and Lt Col Surendran from different battalions in Andhra Pradesh.

Niranjan, NCC officer, Flying Officer Johnson of Loyola College and other staff of the college were present.