Humanitarian, disaster relief mission by Pacific Partnership in H’tota tomorrow

A humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission led by the US Navy and facilitated by the multinational mission ‘Pacific Partnership’ would take place in Hambantota, Sri Lanka tomorrow (7), Arlo Abrahamson, the Public Affairs Officer of the Pacific Partnership said on Wednesday.

Abrahamson, a Lt. Commander of the US Navy, said USNS Fall River, a spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport of the US Navy, would be arriving in Hambantota tomorrow evening (7) to provide a platform to the upcoming event.

“We are here for a multinational mission called pacific partnership. The ship, USNS Fall River would be arriving in Sri Lanka providing equipment and supplies that we will use in the mission,” he told the Daily Mirror during an interview held in Colombo.

Commenting on the upcoming event, he said medical doctors, civil engineers and other personnel arriving from the US, Australia, UK, Japan and South Korea--members of the Pacific Partnership--would share their expertise with Sri Lankans for two weeks.

He said medical and civil engineering experts would conduct many projects side by side with Sri Lankan partners making it a unique and special engagement. “We will get to know our Sri Lankan partners on both personal and professional level. We get to learn about the culture in exchange and learn from each other,” he said.

The teams, which will arrive in here on an invitation extended to it by the Sri Lanka Government, are scheduled to engage in civil engineering projects, construction, repairs, medical exchanges, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief seminars.

Working together on how to face and respond practically to man-made or natural disasters is one of the key focuses of the mission, the Lt. Commander said. “During the mission, members from different countries of the Pacific partnership are coming together to exchange expertise, to work together and learn more about each other. This is really about building partnerships that requires of all of us,” he said.

Apart from medical and engineering projects, cultural events would also be held during the mission inclusive of military bands getting together to play music.

“This mission is focused on the Sri Lankan people and would build a platform for bridging cultures, to build dialogue ultimately providing the expertise to work collectively on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions,” Lt. Commander Abrahamson said.(Lahiru Pothmulla and Dharshana Sanjeewa)

Video by Sanath Desmond