East New Britain wards to pilot Red Cross programme

THE three wards in East New Britain (ENB) are piloting the Red Ready programme, a project under the Papua New Guinea Red Cross.
PNG Red Cross branch development coordinator and project manager Allison Dage said the three wards were Malaguna 2 in the Rabaul’s Balanataman local level government (LLG), Bitakapuk 3 in the Toma-Vunadidir LLG of Gazelle and Malakuna 5 in the Bitapaka LLG of Kokopo.
A team of delegates from the PNG Red Cross Society headquarters and International Federation of the Red Cross accompanied by the branch executive manager and key volunteers visited the two Red Cross project communities. Dage explained that it had been two years since the project was first introduced in the three wards where activities included an integrated vulnerability capacity of assessment and community-based health first aid training.
“Through our programme run in the communities, there is a big need for more of such activities in the communities in the province,” she said.
“The communities and leaders in these three communities that the team visited testified that they had benefited from the programme and asked for more engagement by the Red Cross in their communities.”