BUJUMBURA, December 12th (ABP) – The Burundi Red Cross (CRB) organized an awareness-raising workshop on first aid for journalists and media managers in Bujumbura on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, to enable them to sensitize the Burundian population to the need for first aid. Journalists were also urged to understand that they need first-aid training because they are not immune to incidents that may occur in their workplaces or elsewhere.
On that occasion, the Director in charge of Public Relations at the CRB, Mr. Étienne Ndikuriyo, pointed out that the 2022-2026 strategic plan envisages that by 2026, every household in the country will have at least one individual trained in first aid. In his view, the media have a major role to play in raising awareness of the added value of first aid training in saving lives. He called on media managers and journalists to approach the CRB for practical first-aid training, so that they too can become first-aiders in the days to come.
Dr. Anicet Nzunogera, who gave a presentation on first aid and the media world, explained that first aid is the set of simple gestures and emergency care aimed at bringing assistance to people in danger, such as accident victims, snake bite victims, victims of a health problem like epilepsy or stroke, etc. He did not fail to point out that first aid is also the set of simple gestures and emergency care aimed at bringing assistance to people in danger, such as accident victims, snake bite victims, victims of a health problem like epilepsy or stroke.
He went on to point out that, in the field or even in other work environments, journalists can sometimes find themselves in an emergency situation before first-aiders arrive.
For that reason, training in first aid techniques will enable them to provide immediate assistance to victims. That training will also enable them to help stabilize an injured person until the rescuers arrive. Demonstration sessions were organized on how to manage a hemorrhage or perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Those first aid techniques can considerably reduce the mortality rate, he stressed.