Editor of the Global First Aid Reference Centre Newsletter

“Let’s use first aid as an element of protection, happiness, love and action in favour of people in need, especially in the framework of World First Aid Day! First aid has always been part of my life, both at the professional and personal levels. I started volunteering at the Red Cross in my hometown in Cali (Colombia) when I was an adolescent. I taught prevention measures and carried out first aid activities with children using muppets and fun games. After more than 50 years in the Movement, holding many different hats and views (Director of Colombian Red Cross, IFRC Under-Secretary General, IFRC Americas Regional Director…); I can feel that we really make a difference by working closely with our communities and building a safer world for them using first aid with expertise and humility. Indeed, our value is for humanity, not for us as individuals. We do this by gaining trust and being accountable to our stakeholders (in alignment with the Strategy 2030 and the Agenda for Renewal).

I would like to thank the Global First Aid Reference Centre for the great support provided to National Societies, expanding the knowledge and education with passion

First aid is part of each volunteer’s journey, because a situation can happen on a mission or in the corner of your street. In the life of any volunteer, many opportunities can arise to use first aid, opportunities to save lives. Even I have used my first aid skills in some difficult circumstances involving my family in a car accident and also in a plane in which I was wearing a Red Cross symbol: In both moments, people close to me, or complete strangers needed those skills that I had built within the Red Cross Red Crescent network thanks to my training and knowledge. I think every volunteer and staff should learn and know first aid when they start at the Red Cross/Red Crescent, because we are reliable to the people, we must know the basics of what to do in all types of situations. Nevertheless, I do think that first aid is not only about technique, but also about our capacity to deal with the person in distress. I remember once, as a fire fighter, I had to deal with a very aggressive person who needed help. It took time to convince him that we were here to support, and I could use what I know about psychological first aid. Psychological first aid is something that nowadays many National Societies are doing with their volunteers and communities and we need to support and leverage much more these initiatives in our network and externally.

You can deliver first aid messages making people happy and safe at the same time.

I am pleased to see that the new Policy and Vision for first aid was promoted and adopted during the last IFRC General Assembly. I can see that there were many supporters of that work. During Covid-19 pandemic, communities and volunteers faced many challenges and the human touch of first aid decreased significantly. Nevertheless, I could say that the power of the volunteers was even stronger than before, because in spite of this, they could show their kindness and play their role with their heart.

Policy needs action, we need to collectively meet and build a clear plan and framework to make our words and statements concrete for our volunteers while adapting them to the changing realities. In my mind, we shall focus on the work of the Reference Centres, as they are key to build learning, knowledge management systems and education frameworks based on culture and systems of measurement for our action. I trust the Global First Aid Reference Centre to tackle these challenges and I think your role is essential and magical.  For all the years I have been following you and your work, I can say that you have brought first aid to the National Societies with a lot of passion, expertise and innovation and I have always admired that.

Finally, I wish all the 192 National Societies and first aid programmers a wonderful World First Aid Day and let’s use first aid as a solution for all the communities!”