Over 1,500 tribal area residents given first aid training

Red Cross officials say the purpose of the training was to prepare people for emergencies

PESHAWAR: Over 1,500 men and women from the erstwhile tribal areas were provided with basic first aid training to enhance their response to emergencies and disasters — of the natural and manmade kind.

The training was conducted in the first three months of 2019 in the merged districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), including Khyber, Mohmand, Bajaur, Kurram, Orakzai, Frontier Region Tank, South Waziristan and North Waziristan tribal districts. The training had been conducted by first aid trainers of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society in the Merged Areas.

According to a news release issued on Sunday, a total of 88 trainings were conducted in these areas under the First Aid programme where 1,730 people, including 119 women were trained on first aid techniques.

As many as 90 females of Kurram Tribal District, 23 of Khyber and six from Bajaur District were trained.

Those who were trained included volunteers, community elders, taxi drivers, levies officials, local journalists, paramedical staff, housewives, teachers and religious seminary officials.

PRCS Merged Areas Headquarters Secretary Saeed Kamal Mehsud said that their mandate and responsibility was to respond to natural and manmade disasters and provide relief to the affected community on a priority basis.

He said that first aid response during emergency situations and peacetime was part of the response which will, one way or other,  be rendered to and by the community.  Dilating about the first aid programme, he said that they have experienced teams in this programme which include trained doctors.

“The basic aim of training the community is to boost their knowledge, practice and techniques of first aid and also to respond efficiently in natural and manmade disasters,” said Iftikhar Ahmad, First Coordinator at the PRCS Merged Areas headquarters.

“Our objective is to minimise the risk of incidents in emergencies and handling and transportation of casualties to be made professionally by training community members, he elaborated.

“Our slogan for 2015-2020 is to create a first aider in every home,” he said, adding that they also believe in ‘First aid for everyone everywhere’ and ‘saving lives, changing minds’.

Ahmad was of the view that residents had demanded first aid trainings after which they were properly trained and now they consider it a basic need of life. “People in remote areas constantly demand training for women so that they at least have basic knowledge of first aid,” he said.

He further said that they were now deploying first aid teams on key public holidays such as Pakistan Day on March 23, Nowruz Festival in Kurram, August 14, Muharram, Chehlum, Eid Miladul Nabi, election day and others.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2019.