First aid and resuscitation are at the core of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement’s work. For decades, it has been considered as acts of humanity motivated by the willingness to save lives without discrimination.
Every year, millions of people die or suffer complications from injury due to lack of timely assistance or adequate first aid, which is even more valid in developing countries. The ambulance arrival time differs from one country to another, but in all cases, time is critical in managing a casualty in cardiac arrest.
The IFRC Global First Aid Reference Centre (GFARC) ultimate objectives are to reduce the number of deaths and the severity of injuries, as well as to make people and communities more resilient using first aid. In that framework, the GFARC and the Philips Foundation joined their forces to support the Red Cross Society of Niger and the Burkinabe Red Cross Society in performing trainings and organizing events around cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Three key points are taught in such trainings: first, how to manage the alert for first aid responders, then, while waiting for professional help, how to practice CPR techniques and how to handle an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED). Extra cautions have been taken in the COVID context, to provide safer and more fluid activities in these particular training sessions.
Niger: “Prevention and awareness of cardiac arrest” project
The Niger Red Cross Society (NRCS) works with 10 thousand volunteers all over the country to spread awareness about First Aid. Since 2019 and thanks to the Philips Foundation support, the NRCS has been leading a specific project, offering a short first aid and resuscitation training for students and professional staff in regular and medical schools, in the regions of Niamey, Agadez and Zinder.
The project “Prevention and awareness of cardiac arrest” was launched in October 2020 in Agadez, with attendance of trainers, technical staff and volunteers; as well as students and school staff, and professionals of the Public Health Practice Complex. The project extended during its second half in November 2020 in a similar way, aiming at the same beneficiary populations in the regions of Zinder and Niamey.
This has been successful: 3940 people in those three regions were provided with a first aid and resuscitation course, including 885 people in Agadez, 960 in Zinder and 2095 in Niamey. In total, the event happened in 51 sessions, in 26 public health institutions and medical universities in Niger.
The trainees validated the CPR practice and to further their First Aid education, several recommendations were delivered for the future. The project also formulated recommendations to extend the number of beneficiaries, and therefore enforce a better resilience of the community as a whole. For this purpose, the NCRS recommended the dotation of First Aid material (such as manikins, AEDs, etc.) in Public Health Educational Centres to allow students to follow a First Aid training as part of their curriculum. It would be relevant to enable traineeship in the NRCS for students, and offer similar trainings to other professionals that are working in public places (marketplaces, public services, city halls, etc.).
Burkina Faso: First Aid trainings in the regions of Koudougou, Ouahigouya, Kaya and Fada N’Gourma
The Burkinabe Red Cross (BRCS) developed a first aid and resuscitation campaign for its population. The aim was training in CPR technique and for the use of AEDs in different communities, extending the life-saving actions practice all over the country, and improving the resilience of the communities that are vulnerable in terms of injuries and lack of assistance. The BRCS aimed at some displaced populations, which could sorely benefit from prevention and First Aid training.
The project started with a refresher course for the trainers, who would be able afterwards to work as a relay, share their knowledge, and train people of their community. Then, actual trainings began for the communities in both life-saving actions (protection, alert, stopping bleeding and the recovery position) and the CPR technique. The next phase consisted in providing the equipment for two of the Regional Boards that hosted the events, in Ouahigouya and Fada N’Gourma, answering a lack of equipment in these particular regions.
The project had a media outreach in several media: the online paper lefaso‧net, the channel Burkina‧info and the newspaper Sidwaya.
The BRCS did a great job with 181 people trained in the four regions, as well as 34 Red Cross volunteers, which leads to a total of 215 people that were impacted by this phase of the campaign. The campaign touched different communities: workers of a particular field (shopkeepers, staff of transport companies, public health workers, etc.), volunteers, humanitarian associations and orphanage staff, and internally displaced people. Each of these persons was targeted for their capacity to reduce vulnerability and to ensure a better resilience in their community.
The trainees showed a great interest in the activities, several of them had already experienced emergencies without knowing how to act, and were thus motivated to get proper first aid training. The campaign was inclusive, with a clear female participation. Also, the training included people with physical disabilities in the training.
For the future, the Burkinabe Red Cross Society would like to extend these trainings to larger parts of the population, perhaps in other regions. The idea would be to popularize the training so that every local structure and community could be trained.
