Red Cross trains the disabled in first aid

RED Cross Zimbabwe has embarked on a drive to equip disabled persons with first aid training to ensure that all citizens receive care-giving skills.

The organisation last week held a training workshop at Manicaland Red Cross Centre where 29 people received training. Among these, four had hearing impairment.

Provincial Red Cross manager Mr Paddington Munjoma said the society lined up several programmes, which would involve people with disabilities.

“We are working with Nzeve-Deaf, with four of their students attending this training,” he said. “We want every citizen to have first aid skills and we do not want to leave out those who are living with disabilities.

“They feel they are a sidelined community, so we are trying to do away with that.

“We are also in the process of training schools in disaster risk reduction incorporating first aid and this is a way of promoting literacy in the community.”

Mr Munjoma said there was need to increase awareness of the importance of first aid knowledge even in young children.

He encouraged schools to establish first aid clubs.

“First aid clubs must be established at schools,” he said.

“Teachers must be well equipped with the knowledge and it will help them to prevent a lot of injuries at the schools.

“We introduced first aid to the schools last year and we have received an overwhelming response from various schools. We want to promote first aid literacy. So far about 600 teachers in Mutare District have been trained.

“We will be moving to Chipinge, Makoni and Buhera soon. We are targeting all the seven districts in our province.”

Nzeve-Deaf director Ms Libby Foster applauded Red Cross for including them in their programme.

“It is really a good thing,” she said. “Deaf people can also help their community if they get proper training.

“We are grateful to Red Cross for coming up with such a programme. The last time we had such a programme was in 2000. We had our students trained in basic first aid training.”