Indra Adhikari
Kathmandu 21 May

In the changed socio-political context of Nepal, NRCS has recently accomplished its 37th General Assembly (GA) from 11 to 12 May. About 325 representatives from 71 district chapters, out of 75, and observers participated in the GA programme. It was hosted by Nuwakot district chapter with the support from the national headquarters.

" In the changed national and international context, Red Cross has numbers of challenges to make the humanitarian services effective but we believe that, though difficult , we can face them by mobilizing our volunteers successfully", said Sanjeev Thapa, NRCS Chairman.

After having wider discussion, the GA approved report of the 2007/08 and plan for the 2008/2009 presented by Dev Ratna Dhakhwa, Secretary General and Bhakhta Khawas, Treasurer of NRCS.
"We have endorsed the Fifth Development Plan of the NRCS for 2008-2010, which reflects our commitment to further strengthen our capacity and scale up our services with due consideration on quality services.", said Mr. Dhakhwa. " I believe, this is the high time to really brand our identity of 'Red Cross' for better response to the future challenges in Nepal, may they be caused by natural disasters or human actions", he added.

The GA was over with some crucial decisions to be significant to address humanitarian crisis at the national and international level. Firstly, the assembly decided to mobilize its volunteers affiliated under its chapters, sub-chapters and Junior Youth Circles for awareness campaign on 'climate change' and also involve them for the success of 'national sanitation campaign 2008'. At present, there are 75 district chapters, about 1,200 sub-chapters and about 4,500 junior youth circles working in NRCS.

Likewise, NRCS GA has extended condolence to the survivors of the families of the Nargis Cyclone in Myanmar that hit in the opening of May, and in accord, the GA has called all the district chapters to raise fund to support the cyclone affected families through the International Federation of RCRC.

The opening of the programme look good because of multicultural- Tamang and Newari and Brahmin, dances and a rally involving youth and women along with the participants.

The opening programme, was attended by Andrea Reisinger, Federation Representative, Andre Paquet, Deputy Head of Delegation, ICRC and Aziz Syed, Cooperation Delegate, ICRC and they wished for the grand success of the General Assembly. The opening of the GA was also participated in by the representatives from political parties, district administration office, and district development committee, chief of securities and media people.

At the closing ceremony, Chairman Thapa distributed prize to the best performer districts and staff member during the past year. Likwsise, Bishnu Nepal, the president of the host district convened the opening and closing of the programme and acknowledged cooperation made by the local individuals and organizations, without which success of the GA programme would be very difficult.