Edito of the Global First Aid Reference Centre Newsletter

   “For me, first aid is about helping others and keeping them safe. No matter what title I had for the last 33 years, from volunteer to staff, it was always, somehow, related to first aid. Every life is valuable and I feel that once we have the capacity to save lives, that we should.

Back in 1989, at the age of 18, I got enrolled at the Grenada Red Cross and started to teach first aid. Since that moment, I never left.

33 years later, I am now the President of the Grenada Red Cross Society after being a staff for 7 years.

With regard to our first aid strategy, standardization and commercial first aid are our priority projects at the Grenada Red Cross. I believe it is important that all National Societies are teaching a standardized and systematic first aid methodology so that volunteers can perform all over the world. Besides, one of our current challenge is to develop a commercial first aid program. We have to generate income to be able to have daily operations and do more in communities.

Among our many projects, we are also working on digitalising our training so people can complete a part of their course online. We want to be innovative with technology. Moreover, as first aid volunteers come and go, we are focusing on building long term sustainability in first aid education. To achieve this, our teams work on building a core of paid volunteers at the Grenada Red Cross.

I believe research is at the core of our actions.

By giving us answers, research fashion the way that we take action and promote first aid to the communities. Grenada Red Cross conducts numerous research projects to create evidence-based programs. I believe that to bring more people to research, it is about concrete actions, in terms of advocacy or visibility and to engage academia such as universities. Another path is to develop the research skills of volunteers, outside of academia to expand research capacities of the National Societies on the ground.

Being the first female president of the Grenada Red Cross Society in 35 years, I am doing everything I can to empower women.

I think that we have to promote women in governance, in leadership roles, in decision making positions, and not only at the grassroots level where women seem to be the ones doing community focused activities.

First aid has been useful to me at different times in my life. One time, a young man on a bicycle hit his head on the road. As a first aid instructor, I intervened. Today, this young man is a volunteer at the Red Cross and still calls me doctor ! Besides, I have students that have saved lives. A young girl to whom I taught CPR saved the life of a guest in the hotel where she worked.

Sometimes, during phone calls from people I don’t know, they would say things like “Continue doing what you are doing for the people or I haven’t seen you on the TV lately.”

These moments tell me that people really do treasure the difference that I make. Even if you can change one life at a time, one moment at a time, for me it is worth doing it. First Aid is about changing lives, keeping people safe and building resilience. Because one day, that casualty could be me.”