First-aid training program

First-aid training program

First Aid

For many Cameroonians emergency healthcare is inaccessible and unaffordable. Most communities lack sufficient ambulance service, and care for traumatic injuries may be hours away. These limitations make long-term recovery difficult, leaving many people with secondary infections or lifelong health challenges. Seeing this challenge, CAMAAY has sought to develop a first-aid training program to teach community members basic skills in emergency response. Through hands-on sessions with RedCross certified trainers CAMAAY offers certification in basic first aid skills. So far the program has served students, youth leaders, and vigilante groups. By educating representatives at different levels of the community, we hope to spread awareness on best practices in an emergency.

These trainings followed the general structure of the American RedCross curriculum while adapting to the Cameroonian context. For example, if there is no ambulance available following a traumatic event, how do you support the injury for transportation on unstable roads. Particularly when working with children the educators focused on wound care and infection prevention. Wound care awareness may prevent the need for long term medical care and costly antibiotics.

Particularly in the Limbe subdivision the response to these trainings was very positive. We hope to continue to work with the nascent RedCross Society for that region as they develop their projects. As many communities in and around Limbe are involved in fishing, the lessons on drowning and other water emergencies was of particular interest. Throughout the session the educators interacted extensively with community members and discussed how to combine local traditional solutions with the RedCross recommended best practices.

By providing training to community members this program works to create health resiliency and improve health outcomes after an emergency. The immediate care given after an incident may have a massive impact on the treatment and recovery of an injury.

Looking forward CAMAAY hopes to train additional educators to continue trainings throughout the country. First-aid awareness can create a ripple effect as participants share what they have learned within their communities. A child who attends a CAMAAY first-aid session may go home and tell the rest of their family about best practices for treating kitchen burns, therefore helping a relative avoid significant damage from a cooking accident.

Particularly for internally displaced persons and those without the resources to access formal healthcare, first-aid education and awareness can be the difference between a small injury and a lifelong health concern.