Delhi on 3rd May 2008

Many lives could be saved If atleast the first responders (drivers, police personnel) were trained on first aid to help road accident victims. Most of the victims are taken to hospital after the 'golden hour' is well past.

Delhi Training:
The Hearsaver First Aid (HFA) course is part of the long term initiative to train and sensitize more and more citizens in an effort to reduce risks and death due to accidents. HFA has been the recent addition in the DEEM training programme and the first batch of training was conducted on the 3rd of May 2008, Saturday at the Rotary Viklang Kendra at Karkardooma, Delhi.

Wendy Cowles, as main instructor gave a brief lecture introducing the course with the help of training video. The trainees were then divided into 2 groups. The group with CPR & AED practical was led by Jerry Cowles and Peniel Malakar while Wendy took the main session on First Aid.

40 participants from Sahyog project (partner in this training programme) and ICF (a Delhi based NGO) benefitted from this First Aid training prorgramme. The participants were from heterogenous groups ranging from house wives, local youth and resident welfare association members to CHVs and local leaders including doctor. 60% of the participants were women. All the participants were provided a certificate of participation.

Media played a major role in spreading the message across the area to increase the awareness in the community. A print media as well as AV media reported on the importance on first aid training.

Future Course:
DMMU has thus far sensitized as well as trained more than 500 doctors, nurses, paramedics, community health volunteers in first aids as well as basic life and advanced cardiac life supports. These courses are recognised by American Heart Association (AHA), USA . We as AHA's Regional Training Center (RTC) provide AHA accredited cards to candidates who successfully pass the required standard MCQ and practicals, in arrangement with St.Johns Hospital, Bangalore (ITO).

We envisage to equip 20 instructors to train more volunteers in the field of disaster emergency response during the current year. In order to reach a target of 1000 volunteers this year, we plan to organize such trainings at all the three regions such as, North/Central Region, East Region and NorthEast Region.

Thanks.
Peniel Malakar. EHA DMMU, Delhi.

90% of all workplace injuries are preventable.
FA & CPR can reduce your chance of personal injuries by 40%.