Rescue South Africa chief executive officer Ian Scher has said his organisation is working with the United Nations (UN) to create a standby Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) Search and Rescue Force for emergencies.
Scher said this on Saturday during a closing ceremony of a two-month high-level search and rescue training, which his organisation facilitated at the Malawi Armed Forces College in Salima.
“We are working on creating a data base of rescue operations in the Sadc Region and people in charge of disaster management so that if there is need to assist, we know who to talk to in different countries,” said Scher.
Malawi Defence Force (MDF) deputy chief of research and development colonel Cleveland Kachala hailed USaid, UN and the government of Japan for funding the training.
“This is very expensive training; we could not have managed to organise it on our own. We are very grateful because the training will go a long way in equipping our officers to be prepared in times of disaster,” he said.
The training, which drew officers from MDF, Police, Fire Brigade, Civil Aviation and Red Cross, attracted 28 participants.
Similar trainings have already been conducted in Lesotho, Namibia and Zambia.
