Donation of specified services:

DHL to assist Government in disaster management
 

Additional Secretary, Ministry of Ports and Aviation, G.S. Withanage, Secretary Ministry of Ports and Aviation, Thospala Hewage, Country Manager DHL, Martin Dudek, Vice President Security & Crisis Management DHL Asia Pacific Matt Hemy and National Operations Manager DHL Sugath Jayawickrama after signing agreements.

DHL, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Ports and Aviation to assist the Government in supporting disaster response through the donation of specified services by the DHL Disaster Response Team (DRT) recently.

The DHL Disaster Response Team (DRT) is a DPWN initiative under its Corporate Social Responsibility umbrella, to provide a logistics Disaster Response capability, based on its expertise in Airport Logistics Management, to support National Governments in disaster relief efforts.

Worldwide, DHL set up three Disaster Response Teams which are composed of staff volunteers who are experts in the areas of goods handling, warehouse management, inventory and customs.

They are strategically placed in Singapore, Dubai and Miami to cover regions which are mostly impacted by natural disasters.

In the event of a major disaster the DRT is often deployed to assist in airport ground handling of humanitarian relief cargo arriving on charter cargo flights.

During earlier times, the DRT team helped with relief efforts in Sri Lanka following the 2004 Tsunami disaster, when it actively worked with the Government of Sri Lanka and the Sarvodaya Movement, in the transportation of relief supplies such as purified water and dry rations to affected areas.