On behalf of the GP Koirala Foundation, I would like to welcome you all in this virtual meeting.
We have a common challenge before us. The challenge is to figure out now how to minimize the number of death and the economic and psychological devastation it will cause. For this, we need to heavily invest in education, health infrastructures to protect the humanity which, I think is the sum of health, skills and knowledge. We also need to put our investment in research and development. We need to encourage families, their nieghbours and their co-workers to work together and build community resilience. We need to have an aggressive agenda for additional investment in the fields of public health, vaccine and drug research, emergency management from both public and private sectors. At this juncture, our goal must be to develop vaccines for fighting coronavirus.
Shushma Memorial Trust is at work in social sectors and running hospitals outside Kathmandu, providing health services and training, provide training. With its branches throughout the country, the Trust is engaged in providing education, providing internet facilities in villages.It is a long way, but we are determined to continue our journey.
We have to prepare for post-Covid19 to deal with a host of social, economic and political issues. The biggest challenge, I think will be the engagement of our youth in productive activities. If they are left alone, that will be the source of social unrest and upheaval.
In our own way, Sushma Memorial Trust and GP Koirala Foundation are engaging youth at various levels throughout the country. We need more investments in health, education and other social sectors to address the post-Covid19 phase. We all have to come together, work together, to protect the humanity from pandemic. Let us come together. The opportunity to save millions of lives cannot be passed. Pandemic does not wait us to think also. Let us start planning and preparing by investing in critical sectors that are directly related to people’s health, education and knowledge building.