8, May, 2021. Global First Aid Reference Centre Newsletter edito
Let me start by wishing you all a happy World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day! It is a time to celebrate the incredible work of our volunteers and staff all around the world, and their dedication to helping people in need. The pandemic continues to accelerate, affecting millions of people, amplifying inequalities, destabilising communities and reversing development gains made in the past decades.
In all our National Societies, first aid volunteers are carrying out life-saving missions, supporting public health structures and training communities to help them navigate through this crisis. As the Covid-19 outbreak has pushed all health systems to their limits, it shed light on the importance of first aid education and services.
The purpose of the Global First Aid Reference Centre is to reduce the number of deaths and the severity of injuries by making people and communities more resilient through first aid.
In order to reach this goal, several different projects were launched at the beginning of the year, such as publishing the International First Aid Resuscitation and Education Guidelines for National Societies to update their first aid tools. An important step the Global First Aid Reference Centre team will be working on this year with the IFRC Secretariat is “Repositioning first aid at the centre of strategy 2030”, by updating the Federation-wide first aid policy and vision, in which you are all invited to participate.
In addition to these developments, I am glad to share with you this first edition of the Global First Aid Reference Centre’s Newsletter, which I believe is a significant step in knowledge sharing and the promotion of first aid at a global level. I hope that you will enjoy discovering the latest news, events and stories on first aid, and share it with your colleagues.
- My best wishes,
- Xavier Castellanos
- Under Secretary General, National Society Development and Operations Coordination
- IFRC
