Consulate-General of Japan in Karachi organized the Official Development Assistance (ODA) Press Tour

Consulate-General of Japan in Karachi organized the Official Development Assistance (ODA) Press Tour
 

 
On 16^th December, 2021, the Consulate-General of Japan in Karachi organized the ODA Press Tour in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), in which a group of journalists from various media houses participated. The purpose of the ODA Press Tour was to increase the local media’s awareness on Japanese Government Assistance Projects and its initiatives in Pakistan, thereby informing the people of Pakistan about Japan’s contribution towards Pakistan’s development in various fields such as education, agriculture and human security. The journalists, accompanied by both Consulate and JICA staff, undertook a full-day tour, visiting three project sites in Karachi city.
 
The first site visited was the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) Karachi, where the Japanese Grant for "The Project for Installation of Weather Surveillance Radar at Karachi" was implemented. This entailed the construction of a new meteorological radar tower and the upgrading of its radar system in 2020, the aim of which was improving meteorological observational capacity of the PMD, thereby aiding in the forecasting and early warning of natural disasters such as tropical cyclone and floods. The journalists were given an explanation of the Karachi Meteorological Radar while looking at weather maps and data recorded in this year.
 
The second site was the Indus Hospital, located in the Korangi district of Karachi. Through the GGP project overseen by the Consulate-General of Japan in Karachi, medical equipment for pregnant women and children in need of advanced medical facilities, including pediatric ICU beds, were provided to this hospital in 2016. The maternal and child mortality rate has been decreasing in Pakistan in recent years, but the rate of improvement is still slow. Therefore, improvement of the facilities available to the people in the area will directly affect their lives.
 
The last school visited was an NGO-run school located in Mehran Town, Korangi District, where the technical cooperation project “Advancing Quality Alternative Learning Project (AQAL) -II” provided an Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) to help out-of-school children and youth learn more effectively. The school was built in a small space and its staff gave a briefing about the project while showing the textbooks used there.
 
At each site journalists got an in-depth view of the projects and how they help the people of Karachi and beyond. Following the press tour, there were reports on Japan's development cooperation in newspapers and on television.