Armin Montazeri-Kermanshah: Elhadj As Sy is the Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. After the earthquake in Kermanshah, Iran, he traveled to the country to pay a visit to the earthquake affected areas. Mr. As Sy believes that the level of relief operations by the Iranian Red Crescent Society is of high standard that leave no one behind.
Today you have visited the affected areas plus the remoted areas and villages. How did you find the quality and the quantity of the responses by the Iranian Red Crescent society (IRCS)?
First of all, I think it is impressive to see that not one single village has not been benefited from the support of the Iranian Red Crescent society. It does not matter how far it is, it does not matter how hard to reach it is. All the helps have been deployed. Those areas that can be reached by car were reached by car and those areas that can be reached only by helicopter were reached by helicopter. So it is really a very inclusive approach that nobody is left behind in the response and that is what the humanitarian response is about.
It is also impressive to see that the whole high impact areas that make differences in disasters have been touched; Water sanitation, health, shelter and also psycho social support and mental health. These are extremely important interventions in time like this. And I really congratulate the Iranian Red Crescent society for selecting the areas that make a difference to the life of the people.
What is also impressive is that it is not only what you do but how you do it. I saw hundreds of volunteers with enthusiasm with heart and with commitment and engagement doing this work. Including young children all the way to all the women but also to see how people are treated when they receive the humanitarian supplies with respect and dignity. Those are extremely important elements.
And for all of that we revalue the Iranian Red Crescent society as a member of our federation and I am very happy that I was here to witness that and to express the solidarity of all our movement. I look forward to working with the Iranian Red Crescent Society and supporting the operational program for the recovery phase.
You have talked about the volunteers. You might know that the Iranian Red Crescent Society has a benefit of using thousands of volunteers. Naturally, the issue of training is very important here. What kind of help Red Cross can offer the Iranian Red Crescent to train all these volunteers?
The help that we can offer, first of all is to motivate volunteers through the principles of humanitarian actions. That is the principle to motivate people and to help them better understand why they are doing this and what kind of outreach it has and what kind of difference it can make. But also in specific areas it can be to motivate youth to engage in humanitarian actions. Training in first aid, training in search and rescue and training in emergency shelter program, training in managing camps and base camps, all those are available in the federation and the Iranian Red Crescent can benefit from them.
But at the same time, I think all the members of the federation can learn also from the Iranian Red Crescent society. Because in my previous visit I witnessed a training course that was happening outside of Isfahan where people really doing simulation for disaster response and disaster preparedness including intervention on the road accident scenes. All those were extremely important capacities that exist and other members of the federation can learn from it. I think it is going to be a good exchange program based on which we could offer and we hope through this partnership that we have we can work together in resilience.
Is there a platform for exchanging experiences between the Iranian Red Crescent  and the Red Cross?
The platform exists already and now that the Iranian Red Crescent Society is the member of the board we can use this channel to share more and more of these opportunities. we also have focal point here in Tehran that can be used to be aware of all the opportunities and possibilities that the federation offers.
It’s been 20 days since the earth quake hit Kermanshah, what must be done at this phase?
What should be done in being done right now. It is moving slowly to the recovery phase. People who are very hard to reach and their livestock and infrastructure have been destroyed are still benefiting from some aids like food supply for a period of time. Moving slowly into rebuilding structures is important and in the meantime the government is taking responsibilities for longer term shelter.  What is important is that in a disaster area we must be sure that codes are also sensitive to the seismic data of the area so we do not have a kind of destruction in the future.
 You know that the nuclear deal between Iran and west has been signed. It is true that we still have some banking route problems but it is moving slowly forward. How do you see the possibility of Red Cross being able to do fund raising for Iran in such a disaster?
One of the most important principles of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent is impartiality and neutrality as well as independence. That guarantees that we do principle humanitarian actions everywhere under all circumstances and because of that we have systems in place for humanitarian action because that is our work which is independent from other political and economic problem.  We have mechanisms in the federation through our appeals, our disaster relief emergency funds and through our operation plans to mobilize the resources where it is required.
If you want to give the Iranian Red Crescent an advice and some kind of a suggestion, what would it be?
The kind of challenges that we face in terms of disasters and humanitarian challenges are bigger that anybody alone, so partnership is key and I am glad to see the partnership between the government and other institutions here in the country. International partnership is also critical and the federation provides a platform for international partnership and solidarity. we call the Iranian Red Crescent Society to be an active member of the federation and to be an active member of those platforms and programs. And on the other hand we will make sure that Iranian Red Crescent will benefit from everything that federation offers.