The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Ekiti has organised a two-day training to its staff on first aid and casualty handling during disasters.
The Head of Operations office in Ekiti, Mr Olusegun Afolayan, said the programme was introduced by the Director-General of NEMA, AVM Muhammadu Muhammed, to build staff capacity for effective response to emergencies.
He said that the Director-General has emphasized the commitment to continuously improve on the staff competence and operational readiness by ensuring that they are provided with the right skills and techniques involve in during emergency.
According to him, the exercise is in collaboration with the Nigerian Red Cross Society to ensure capacity competence of its staff for effective response to emergencies.
Mr Afolayan said the Red Cross Society was one of the major partners of NEMA and Stakeholders in disaster management.
“NEMA engaged the society to provide the Basic First Aid training for certification of the staff and recertification for those that have been previously trained,” he stressed.
The Head of Operation said the training was envisaged to improve and maintain the competency of the agency’s personnel in disaster management, aimed at enhancing capacity building of staff during response operation and the need to be very proactive in all emergency operations.
The Ekiti State Branch Secretary of the Nigeria Red Cross Society, Mr Bamigbola Babajide, said that the first components that the society looks at in disaster is first aid, hence, there’s need to focus more attention on it.
” In the process of trying to help people on the field, we should also know what to do before taking the victim to the hospital,” he said.
One of the members of staff, Mr Ibrahim Olarewaju, appreciated the Director-General for organizing the training for the staff by sharpening their intellectual capacity to know more on first aid.