By Emily Setona
QWAQWA – The Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality’s department of disaster management held a week-long disaster management and first aid training session for the community of Maluti – a – Phofung.
The training was a collaboration between the Fire Department, the South African Red Cross Society and Santam. Executive Mayor Conny Msibi attended the session to give a word of encouragement to the participants.
The district’s disaster management practitioner who is responsible for educating and capacitating the community around issues of safety and first aid, Sthembiso Mthombeni, had this to say when speaking to The Guard:
“As a department we do not have enough personnel and it is for this reason that such training sessions are important. When people are waiting for an ambulance, they should have the first aid skills to be able to save lives.
“It is very important for the community to be skilled and trained in first aid so that when they are faced with emergency situations there are individuals who can easily intervene.”
Jeffrey Masiu a first aid trainer from Red Cross said: “This training is offering basic life support first aid and disaster management. We have realized that as a province, the Free State experiences incidences of people who die from minor injuries when no one can dress a wound or offer immediate attention to persons who need medical attention while waiting for an ambulance.”
One of the participants, Zandile Radebe who is a fire fighter in the MAP fire department was also at the training and demonstrated a few lifesaving techniques alongside Masiu.
“My job as a firefighter is not easy but I love it and this training is very useful because it offers people in the community a chance to be trained in first aid and disaster management so that they can assist before our department or an ambulance reaches the emergency situation.”
Addressing the participants, Msibi said: “I am so proud to see Zandile here, this young lady has been doing this for a very long time. This kind of commitment shows that she is passionate about what she does and it is such people who need to be supported and encouraged to do more.”
She said she had taken note of the fact that most of the people there were women.
“Observing that it is mostly women here is very encouraging to me because all learning and skills development starts at home. Every person here should go back to their communities and share their newly learned skills with the rest of their communities. Councilors who are here should also use this opportunity given to share with their fellow colleagues in the municipality so that when they leave a position they don’t leave with their skills and knowledge. People don’t stay in a position forever so it is important to share skills so that everyone is empowered.”
The acting chief of the fire department Johnny Seleke said he was humbled to have the mayor grace them with her presence, and he thanked to her for coming to encourage participants at the training.
“We as the fire department are very grateful to have such training sessions hosted on our premises and appreciate the mayor’s support by being here today,” Seleke said.
