Landmark move: Modern emergency services academy to start on 15th

It will train rescuers from Pakistan, SAARC countries.

LAHORE:

A modern emergency services academy providing training to rescuers from Pakistan and those from South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries would start functioning from December 15, Punjab Emergency Service Director General Rizwan Naseer said on Monday.

“This will be the first ever institute in the country providing training at an international level,” Naseer told The Express Tribune.

He said a number of training courses would be offered at the academy sprawling over 160 kanals at Niaz Beg.

The average duration of training courses for the newly recruited rescuers will be six month; refresher courses will also be arranged.

Naseer said all training wings and offices of Rescue 1122 at the Emergency Services Academy, Ferozepur Road, would be relocated to the new academy. He said 95 per cent of the development work had been completed – admin block, academic block, model rescue station, training swimming pool, cadets’ hostels and instructor hostels are ready.

The director general said trainers for the academy had been trained by instructors from the United Kingdom, Scotland and Nepal. He said Rescue 1122 was in the process of obtaining accreditation with the United Nation’s Organisation of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

He said UNOCHA representative Annette Hearns had visited the Emergency Services Academy in this regard.

Deputy Director (Training) Farhan Khalid said courses related to fire fighting, medical emergencies, search and rescue operation, chemical hazards, medical first responders, disaster response, tragedies related to height and flood rescue would be taught at the new academy.

He said revised techniques of search and rescue would be included in these training courses.

“We believe a rescuer should look like a rescuer… on the basis of this idea, all training courses have been designed to train rescuers in difficult circumstances so that they may be able to deliver well.”

Jam Sajjad Hussain, the spokesperson for Rescue 1122, the service had launched a Community Training Programme under Ruqaiyya Bano.

Rescue instructors trained under the programme were providing basic life support training to community members, students and industrial workers, he said.

Hussain said Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) were being set up on tehsil levels across the province to train community members so that they might assist emergency services in times of need.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2014.