Seven Advisory Group Members (AGM) of the ASEF Public Health Network along with an ASEF delegation headed by Ambassador ZHANG Yan, ASEF’s Executive Director, visited Ishinomaki in Japan on 27 February. The area of Ishinomaki was heavily damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 2011.
The AGM and ASEF team visited the Ishinomaki Red Cross Hospital, Peace Boat Disaster Relief Volunteer Center (PBV), and Higashimatsushima Municipal Government to hear about their first-hand experience of disaster response. The presentations and discussions centred on medical and health aspects of relief activities. The field trip facilitated learning about possible aspects of disaster preparedness that ASEF as well as AGM can implement in their respective organisations’ activities.
Prior to this visit, the AGM participated in the ASEF Public Health Network’s annual meeting in Tokyo on 26 February. The AGM included representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WHO-WPRO), ASEAN Secretariat, Health and Consumers Directorate General of the European Commission (EC DG-SANCO), International Organization for Migration (IOM), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and Nestlé.