ISLAMABAD: The participants of a global forum have agreed to work on devising a roadmap as well as a work plan to raise funds for Covid-19 vaccination.

Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Secretary General chaired the virtual meeting of the ‘Global Forum for Fundraising and Roadmap for Routine Immunization and Covid-19 Vaccination’. As many as 103 Red Cross Red Crescent Movement members from 34 countries, including four regional heads, participated in the session. The meeting was an interactive exercise, wherein the participated expressed their views and shared inputs and ideas.

The forum agreed to seeks details of the needs of other working groups so that fundraising targets for operations and advocacy might be set as a way forward.

The meeting also agreed to develop a ‘Risk Communication and Community Engagement’ strategy to shed misconceptions and false notions about coronavirus.

The participants agreed to hold another meeting of the forum in two weeks.

Addressing the session, PRCS Secretary General called for scaling up collective efforts to develop a safe and efficacious vaccine for the Covid-19, which has badly hit the entire world. He called for ensuring that the vaccines are made accessible to all the people irrespective of their geographical, ethnic or financial considerations. “The past experience of HIV, HINI and Ebola epidemics must not be repeated when medications were not equally available to all,” he cautioned. “We need to work together under a common vision to protect the humanity from suffering and the devastating socioeconomic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic,” he added.