By DENNIS ORERE
Community-based publishing group in Port Moresby, the Cop Publishing Limited, has taken the initiative to undertake an awareness project on existing ‘free emergency calls’.
Project Officer Kessy Rova said: “Many people in the country do not know their emergency numbers and so they do not use them.
“We want to make awareness on the numbers and since most people now own mobile phones, we would like them to use the numbers in times of emergencies,” he said.
The project, called Resident Protection Call (RPC), was launched on Tuesday at the Port Moresby Golf Club by acting Metropolitan superintendent Brian Boze, on behalf of Minister for Community Development Dame Carol Kidu, who could not make it due to other commitments.
Those present at the occasion included representatives from Digicel, St John Ambulance, Police, Motu-Koita community and the business sector.
Another issue raised at the launching was the ‘wantok call’, which was said to be still a concept but was to be looked into in the future. The wantok call was described to be similar to Digicel’s ‘call me’ service and even if both callers did not have units in an emergency, the call could still be made for one of them to explain his or her situation for a certain amount of time.
A Motu-Koita community representative said the emergency numbers were important to the people, especially in village communities, because most of the unknown problems would be addressed through them.
The free emergency toll numbers are: Police 000; Fire 002; Ambulance 001 and St John Ambulance 111.
RPC was designed to promote resident awareness based on protection and safety against human disasters like vandalism, graffiti, violence, rape and natural disasters.