Future plans and actions are clearly defined in the MRCS strategic plan (2007-2010). Activities are defined under five programme areas: Organizational Development, Health and Care in the Community, Disaster Management, Cooperation and Coordination and Financial Resources Development, with these, the Society is putting her ablest effort to deliver efficient and effective humanitarian services in Myanmar.

The communications is one of the key elements of capacity building of National Societies in promoting Red Cross and Red Crescent actions and humanitarian values. It is now widely accepted and acknowledged that communications play an important role in raising our profile for attracting more volunteers and supporters for a large scale of RC movement.

In order to fulfill such kind of need, the MRCS established Communications Division on 1st August 2002. The goal of the Division is to heightened awareness of and greater support for the Red Cross Movement in the country. “Communications” of MRCS refers conventional information work, public relations and dissemination activities.
The Division is formed with 6 staff, one Head of Division, two Officers, two Assistance Officers and one Administrative Assistant. The Division has five objectives:
·      To improve image of MRCS and raising awareness of humanitarian values within the country and abroad
·      To improve internal and external communications
·      To expand strategic links to internal and external media to sustain high profile media coverage of the Movement
·      To make the Communication Divisions strong and well – developed
·      To heightened awareness of Red Cross/Red Crescent activities and humanitarian values in Myanmar among key external stakeholders, including diplomatic missions, the cooperate sectors, civil authorities, INGOs and civil society

Role and Responsibilities
·      To disseminate Red Cross Movement and humanitarian values to the general public
·      To promote communications between NHQ and branches and branches themselves
·      To manage NS conventional information and public relations
·      To disseminate the public related to RC events through mass media
·      To develop and produce IEC materials regarding NS information and dissemination
·      To help and support NHQ Divisions/ Units and branches regarding information and dissemination matters

Cooperation with ICRC and the Federation

The cooperation with ICRC and the Division is mainly focused on dissemination activities. To date, altogether 23 Dissemination Workshops were organized for Red Cross Leaders from 12 States/Divisions out of 17 States/Divisions. ICRC also provided a huge support for printing dissemination IEC materials.
The cooperation with the Federation and the Division is mainly focused on information and public relations. The Federation supported funding for sharing information and exchanging experiences among Red Cross Volunteers, strengthening information resources and raising awareness of public by mass media.



Information Activities in progress
To live in a dynamic changing world and today globalization, the Division is planned to launch a bilingual (English and Myanmar) MRCS website in early 2007. The website is now under developing stage and it will be ready by the end of this year. It is also planned to construct a volunteer database to upgrade the NS’s Management Information System.

MRCS Library
The Society has been trying to re-establish its library since 2003. The Division took the responsibility for establishing the library started from 28th March 2006. The library is now filled up with existing reference books, project reports, general knowledge books and a few health books donated by some of UN agencies. Federation supported the Library by providing daily newspaper and other magazines in order to keep the Library with current information updates.