Earlier this week, Dr. Charles Muvara, the first Aid Coordinator at Rwanda Red Cross Society and team ended a three-day refresher course for trainers at Africa Improved Foods (AIF) Offices. The training took place between 6th and 8th of
December 2017. I was fortunate to be part of this informative and educative training.
The main objective of this training was to educate AIF staff on first aid techniques and the right ways to carry out this practice. This training equipped us with rightful knowledge and confidence on how we must act quickly but safely
in an emergency. This is important as the first few moments after an accident and how it is handled are often critical.
In my view, I think since these accidents cannot be predicted and can happen in any area of life, from work to home, which is why it is important to be prepared. When emergencies do happen someone trained in first aid acting straight away
before emergency services arrive, can save a life.
To recap the training ‘During the first two days of the workshop, a lot of questions were asked but there was this specific one I remember that pulled everyone’s attention, “back home, my friend was involved in an incident
that caused an internal bleeding and his stomach was really swollen, at the scene we were advised to cut him up using a sharp knife to let the blood out and it actually worked, he survived that day. Do you think this might have led
to another side effect since it has not been mentioned?” the participant asked.
Dr. Muvara responded to the question with another question “I drove my car without a permit for about 6 months and was never caught, in my head I thought it was okay but it was not, I was lucky plus the security back then was not
as tight as the current one, please do not try that now, one way or the other you will be caught and the consequences are really terrible! Some people just practice such habits not knowing what would happen next like what if he was
to bleed to death? The Dr. advised that there are steps to be followed before you get assistance from professionals.”
The skies were bright and ushered us to a new morning of the last day of the training and we were into the practical bit. I can say this was the most interesting part for every participant, it turned the theoretical bit learnt in the past
two days to real practice and this was much easier for us to understand how things are really done. In fact we came to realize that people were mastering the sessions. In the practical session, our trainer took us through lessons on
all the emergency evacuation techniques i.e. the wrist traction, traction with blanket, Fireman’s carry and last but not least rauteck (let’s talk about these technical terms in our next article J).
The instructor made sure that we participated in each and every evacuation technique mentioned above. She emphasized on the fact that accidents and emergencies are part of life, if you are better prepared for them, your responses in emergency
situations can significantly reduce the damage and improve the recovery process.
In a nutshell, this training was really important not only on a personal perspective but also the company in general. A big thank you to the management for thinking of this educative training since safety preparedness is KEY!
