EHA

Project Background:
In India, 200, 000 people face medical emergencies in a day. 86,000 people are killed in accidents annually and 4,35,000 more are seriously injured. More than 80% deaths that happen in hospitals take place in the first hour of admission.
(Source: EMRI, Ahmadabad).

The World Health Organization has projected that by 2020 road accidents will be a major killer in India accounting for 546,000 deaths and 15,314,000 disability-adjusted life years lost.

Since independence, Northeastern States has a record of more than 50,000 deaths due to ethnic violence alone. Violent incidents in 2007 alone killed 1489 people and civilian death during the same year was 498.
(sources: Center for Excellence in Disaster Management & Humanitarian Assistance, 2004 & MoHA, GoI).

Many lives could be saved if police & fire personnels, office and factory workers, drivers & commoters, students and even laymen are trained in basic first aid and life saving skills. Injuries can be fatal (deadly) if not attended appropriately and timely, leading to heavy cost to life long disability or incapability.

In the year 2006, Emmanuel Hospital Association's DMMU (Disaster Management & Mitigation Unit) envisioned to provide life saving skill training to every next citizen of India. Ever since then DEEM training center provided more than 500 medical and nonmedical volunteers cutting across Andaman & Nicobar Islands in the south and Jammu & Kashmir in the north of India.

This month's launching of the regional level pilot project on disaster preparedness in the northeastern region of India is indeed a great opportunity to expand its vision and reach out to the people of the 8 states building local capacities. The project is funded by CBM, Germany.

The primary objective is to prepare the community at risk by raising local volunteers, train & equip local community with the knowledge of life saving skills to reduce risks of injuries and death. During the series of 70+ training sessions, the project would develop short term training modules for general emergency responders and post-disaster trauma counselling courses to help build capacities of local volunteers.

EHA provides American Heart Association's life saving training modules globally accredited as Heart Saver First Aid (HSFA), Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) courses for medical first responders training and the Baptist Global Response team would support us in developing the general emergency responders course. Lifeline structures including hospitals needs to be safe and they should be able to meet the additional need of medical emergencies in case of any mass casualties. Hence, the project is also committed to develop a suitable Hospital Disaster Preparedness and Response plans for the region piloting in Burrows Memorial Christian Hospital, one of the EHA hospitals in Assam.

Basic Information on the Project in a nut-shell:

• Project implemented by: EHA-Disaster Management & Mitigation Unit of Delhi
• Project HQ : Central Office, Emmauel Hospital Association. Delhi
• Project Period: 15 months starting from October 2009
• Project Area: 8 states of the Northeastern Region (Assam, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya,
• Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim & Manipur) of India.
• Project Regional Office: Burrows Memorial Christian Hospital, Alipur, ASSAM. 788101.

Project Highlights:

• Raise 2000 volunteers from northeastern region of India and train them in life saving and basic disaster response skills;
• Raise and build local capacites as Training Providers and Training Instructors from the region (8 states);
• Establish Regional DEEM Training Center;
• Develop General Emergency Responders Training Module;
• Develop Hospital Disaster Preparedness & Response Plan;
• Establish Disaster Response Network linking the volunteers to nearest hospitals in their own locality, region & beyond.

Prelude exercise: 3rd December 2009
As parts of the prelude exercise the first regional level stakeholders meeting was held on 3rd December 2009 with about 12 representatives from 6 states were present representing minority and faith-based groups, organizations, institutions, including NGOs. (They are in short : TBCU, PCI- Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, FBCI, ZBCC, ZBU, NBCCA, AES, MBC, NEIBBC, ERC, EHA, ECF, BADS, YMA).

Roll Out Program: 18th January 2010

A very successful Roll Out program was organized as a part of the general awareness creation in the district, on disasters and the need of raising trained volunteers in the region, at a local hotel in Silchar, Assam.

The Honorable Member of Legislative Assembly of Assam Md. Qutubuddin Mazumder was the Chief Guest of the program. The other invitees were the District Collector, Sub-Divisional Medical & Health Officer, District Malaria Control Officer, District Medical Officer-WHO, NRHM District Project Manager & Media Incharge, representitives from Assam Police, Fire Brigade, President of Barak Valley Drivers' Association and 3 district level Secretaries, representatives from popular schools and colleges, District Sports Association President, Border Road Task Force Commandant, Colonel from Masimpur Army Base, PWD officials, Silchar Medical College, State Transport Officials, Airport Authority of India, Kumbhirgram, Silchar, representations from major FBOs, CSOs, clubs (Lions, Rotary & Deshbandhu) and media (print and television) including All India Radio, Silchar.

The ex-Union Cabinet Minister Honorable Mr. Santosh Mohan Dev sent his best wishes to the project team and assured all his supports for the for the project in the region. From a reliable source it was known that Mr.  Santosh Mohan Dev was nominated for the post of Honorable Governer of Madhya Pradesh.

Assam State Urban Development Minister Mr. Dinesh Prasad Goala apologized his absence which was unavoidable due to an important meeting in Delhi. Mr. Goala has been a great support and a good friend of BMC Hospital, Alipur since long.

Another good friend and well wisher Mr.Ajit Singh, Honorable MLA, Assam has promised to support in all possible means for the success of the project.

The First ToT program:

The first batch of Training of Instructors program was scheduled from 18 – 21 January 2010 at BMCH, Alipur, Assam. 70 preselected volunteers attended the TI program representing more than 30 different localities from all across 6 states. 15 Instructors were finally certified from the 20 instructor potential candidates being shortlisted on day-1, by a 3-member Instructor team from IAEM (an AHA ITC, Hyd). The potential instructors had to undergo a rigorous 35 hours training program in 4 days to finally ready to train volunteers for Basic Life Supports and Heart Savers First Aid courses.

The first batch of 15 instructors are highly charged and enthused to return to their own states start providing training to volunteers. Hence, the DPTCB Project team met on 20th January 2010 and planned out to ensure all the 70+ series of Training Programmes beginning from February 2010 covers 1500+ youth volunteers from the region. From some states like Mizoram, Young Mizo Association, a very popular NGO that works very closely with the state government in many areas targets to train 500+ volunteers alone.