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MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The newly-appointed CEO of the Red Cross in South Africa, Fernel Campher, was in Mossel Bay last week.
He was in town to speak to people doing a Red Cross first aid course and to assess them at the end of the course.
The Red Cross is providing a certain number of free basic first aid courses, using specific funds it has received. The organisation is dependent on donors.
The Southern Cape Red Cross branch is in Knysna. Besides Mossel Bay, Campher did a tour of towns including George, Oudtshoorn and Plettenberg Bay, to see where next to open another Red Cross branch in the Garden Route or Central Karoo, so that there is more than only the Knysna branch in this area.
Photo gallery: Red Cross is giving free first aid courses
Help communities
Although the 20 trainees did the first aid course for free, they were expected to "pay it forward" and help their communities with what they had learnt, Campher told them. They were trained in how to be first responders in the case of an emergency. The course took place at MediCube Medical Supplies and Services in Via Appie Street, Voorbaai.
Learning first aid is necessary for lifeguards, home-based carers, early childhood development centre staff and auxiliary nurses, for example, but also useful for members of the community who would like to help others in the case of an emergency.
Training the poor
With the free courses, the Red Cross is focusing on training the poor in communities, although it also offers training for businesses.
The Red Cross will also be offering ambulance assistant training soon.
The training in Mossel Bay was given by the disaster officer from the Red Cross Western Cape provincial headquarters in Wynberg, Cape Town.
The head of the Knysna Red Cross branch, Abel Brown, said: "On completion of the course the trainees receive a Red Cross first aid certificate, which is the only certificate that can be used globally."
If you are interested in doing a first aid course, call the Red Cross Knysna office (044 382 1244).
A first aid trainee checking a "victim's" pulse.
"Don't stop CPR until a paramedic arrives, even if you have to do it for two hours," the course attendees were told.
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