By Stanley Senya
Accra, Feb. 15, GNA – Elijeko Foundation, a Non-Profit Health Organisation based in Ghana, plans to initiate a trainers training workshop for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Instructors.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation is a lifesaving hands-only technique that is useful in many emergencies, such as a heart attack, particularly where someone’s breathing, or heartbeat has stopped.
Madam Celestina Kalor Abapiri, the Country Director of Elijeko Foundation, said this hands-only CPR applied to both untrained bystanders and first responders.
Madam Abapiri made this known in a statement during a CPR Training workshop in Kumasi for some selected professionals, who were members of the Kumasi Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industries in the Ashanti Region.
She said it had become necessary to train more people from different locations in Ghana to augment the skill of saving lives under emergency circumstances, especially issues relating to heart attacks.
The Country Director said the Foundation planned to undertake the project in partnership with the US-based Global Mission Readiness, a non-profit organisation that provides emergency services in education and resources to public safety agencies worldwide.
“Selected community volunteers will be trained on Emergency Medical Services, Basic Water Rescue Training, Rope Rescue and Vehicle Extrication through partnership with organizations like Global Mission Readiness and other fire departments in the United States and Canada,” Madam Kalor Abapiri said.
Madam Kalor Abapiri said they recently launched the Pre-Hospital Emergency Training in Kumasi, and it became necessary that they focus on “train the trainer” programmes so that more people would be trained to provide bystander CPR education in their local communities to help others acquire this critical health and basic lifesaving skills.
She said currently in Ghana, there was a limited number of CPR Instructors, so the Foundation had taken it upon itself to train more people and they were going to train other persons with little or no knowledge at all about CPR matters.
Mr. Andrews Kwabena Nyantakyi, the Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation said his organisation had worked with Global Mission Readiness in previous years to train NADMO volunteers and first responders in Afigya Kwabre District, Sekyere Afram Plains and Bosomtwe Constituency.
“The Foundation has opened discussions with Global Mission Readiness to help develop the ‘train the trainer’ concept so that many can receive information needed to provide effective CPR intervention, while sending some selected individuals to the United States for future training,” he added.
Mr. Nyantakyi said a U.K based bookseller called AwesomeBooks had pledged to support the Foundation’s efforts to ensure that everyone in Ghana was equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to intervene in medical emergencies.
Miss Sannah Maan, the Head of Impact and Giving at AwesomeBooks, said her company had worked closely with the Foundation since 2011 in Ghana to donate books to schools in the Ashanti Region and was excited to support the Foundation’s initiative to make healthcare knowledge accessible to Ghanaians.
Mr. Kwaku Sarpong, the Operations Manager, at Prudential Bank Adum Branch in Kumasi, expressed optimism and appreciated the Foundation for the initiative.
“This training is indeed an eye-opening programme to CPR because it is not common and also not something we teach in our various schools. It is very important because with that little knowledge, you can at least save some lives,” Mr. Sarpong added.
He appealed to the Foundation to provide the training to the public in partnership with the Ghana Red Cross Society to create more awareness on the CPR Training to save more lives.
GNA