Sri Lanka Red Cross & Taiwan Red Cross Organization enhances bilateral ties

01/04/2016 – Colombo, Sri Lanka: The President of Sri Lanka Red Cross Society Jagath Abeysinghe along with the Chairman of the Finance Commission Prasanna Dassanayake was on an official visit to the Taiwan Red Cross Organization and also took part in the National Disaster Exercise conducted by the Ministry of National Defense of Taiwan, in Nantou County in Central Taiwan.

Since 2010, local governments in Taiwan’s 22 cities and counties have been participating in annual disaster drills in cooperation with the ministries of national defense and interior and the Taiwan Red Cross Organization.

Due to the efforts over the past few years, Taiwan has been able to reduce possible disasters and casualties brought by typhoons. With 66 different facilities to practice disaster response, the center is seen as the largest in Asia.

During his visit President Abeysinghe met with the President of the Taiwan Red Cross Organization Ching Weng Fang and discussed how to strengthen relations between the two national societies.

The Taiwan Red Cross Organization is one of the National Societies who were first to respond during the time of the tsunami to aid Sri Lanka Red Cross and also took steps to provide more support to rebuild the lives of the people who were victims of the conflict in the north.

President Jagath and the Chairman of the Finance Commission Prasanna Dassanayake also visited the permanent housing scheme in Shen – Mei Community  in Southern Taiwan. This is the recovery project of Typhoon  Morokot  which occurred in 2009 , where the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society  has also made a financial contribution to the Taiwan Red Cross in assisting  this recovery project.