Online Reporter
Herald Reporter
THE Convergence Community Emergency Response Team (ConCERT) will hold another community Basic First Aid Training programme in Harare on Saturday as the volunteer emergency response organisation steps up efforts to create a network of trained citizens capable of assisting casualties before professional medical teams arrive.
The training will be held at Wingate Golf Club along Alpes Road from 8.30 am to 1.30 pm, with participants set to receive NSSA-accredited certificates.
The practical, hands-on programme will be conducted in local languages and is open to members of the public at a special fee.
According to ConCERT, the training comes at a time when the value of community-based first aid skills is increasingly being demonstrated at major road traffic accidents and other emergencies.
ConCERT founder Mr Webster Jaricha said the organisation was beginning to see tangible benefits from its sustained investment in community training, with people previously trained by the organisation now assisting at emergency scenes.
“Our efforts to train the community are beginning to pay off,” he said.
“At some of the major accidents we have attended recently, people who had previously gone through ConCERT training were already at the scene and were able to assist our first responders and ambulance crews.
“This helps tremendously, particularly when there are many casualties and the professional emergency teams are dealing with several patients at the same time.”
Mr Jaricha said trained members of the public could provide valuable assistance within the limits of their training while emergency services were being mobilised.
“The idea is not to turn members of the public into paramedics. It is about giving them the confidence and practical skills to recognise an emergency, keep the scene safe, provide appropriate first aid and support professional responders until they arrive,” he said.
ConCERT has previously stressed that its community responders complement rather than replace ambulance services, hospitals, police and other statutory emergency agencies.
The organisation operates a volunteer responder network and a control room which helps co-ordinate emergency assistance.
