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April 2014 Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Certifying our partners from the Childcare and health project

with Emergency First Responder training

SUMMARY

The Playa Community team delivered vital first aid training to our implementing partners at the Save

the Children Ludoteca (toy library) and the Special Needs School. This extremely valuable knowledge

enables GVI to foster a safe and nurturing environment for all whom we serve he re in Playa and the

community as a whole.

REPORT

This month has been a very active and successful one for the GVI community Playa hub. A major

success was the delivering of the Emergency First Responder (EFR) training course to our partners

here in Playa del Carmen. Not only are we equipping them with lifesaving skills, we are creating a

safer environment for the wider community. Knowledge is empowering in all forms, but the critical

knowledge of how to potentially save a life or prevent death, transcends this.

There are approx. 4 million traffic accidents registered in Mexico each year, claiming the lives of

24,000 people.1 In conjunction with work related accidents and other incidents of random nature, it

is imperative that all of the staff within GVI and our partners are equipped to assist in th ese

emergencies. By providing emergency treatment you could be potentially saving their lives, or

minimizing the lasting damage to their health. This if possible, is even more critical to our partners

who work with vulnerable people on a daily basis. The children are vulnerable and in our care, we

therefore have a duty to do everything in our power to maintain a safe environment.

1 http://www.laht.com/article.asp?Articleld=385814&Categoryld=14091 accessed on 25/04/2014

Figure 1. Full house at the EFR training with our partners from Save the Children and the Equine therapy

and Integral Care Center

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In total we have trained all 9 Ludotecarias from

the Save the Children Ludotecas in Playa del

Carmen and Tulum, and 3 members of the Special

Needs School from the Equine therapy and

Integral Care center throughout the month of

April. In preparation for their training the new

EFR recruits were given a booklet of basic

information to read to assist them in

understanding the material that was going to be

presented to them. All new GVI volunteers

undertake this training at the inception of their

placement. Once the staff members at our

projects are all trained, there will be a minimum

of three EFR responders on site.

The training was delivered with the help of three GVI members of staff. Alex and Cynthia (our EFR

trainers) conducted the course throughout the day with the assistance of videos and a real life

mannequin in the form of Maddie our intern. During this initial phase the EFR teaches you how to

respond to an emergency, what you should do, who you should contact and how to administer

potentially lifesaving treatment until professional help arrives. Having listened and watched

attentively to the instruction it was then time to practice their newly acquired skills on our live

mannequin, to the amusement of all involved.

This training included how to respond to emergencies with children.

This is particularly relevant for the Ludotecarias who deal with up to

100 children in one day. It is also relevant to the special needs

school, for although they are dealing with children with far more

complex medical needs, the basic treatment in life threatening

situations is universal and an essential skill for anyone working with

vulnerable people to possess.

In addition to dealing with urgent life threatening injury, the EFR

also trains practitioners in secondary injury care such as splints,

minor head injuries and other non-life threatening injuries. These

are the skills that are most frequently required by emergency

responders, particularly those working with children. The

ludotecarias often have to deal with large numbers of play related

injuries such as scraped knees and bump heads. Equally sometimes

more than a basic dressing can be required and a more advanced

skill is required to treat the injury.

To asses our recruits understanding of the course, we tested them with a mock real life situation.

Emergency scenarios included people falling down the stairs, choking, serious bleeding,

unresponsiveness, for both adults and children.

These live scenarios are an excellent way of putting the skills learned into practice and visualizing

Figure 2 The ladies from the Save the Children

Ludoteca responding urgently to an emergency scenario

Figure 3 A Ludotecaria learning

how to help in case of choking for children and babies

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how you would apply them in a real life crisis.

After a challenging couple of days of training, our brave recruits had to toil through an exam about

everything they had learnt, that they all passed with excellence.

It was a pleasure to share imperative knowledge with our implementing partners. Our volunteers

and staff learn many things every day from them here in Playa, therefore, to be able to return the

favor and with something so vital, is enormously gratifying. Our partnership with them is

collaborative and is always intended to be mutually beneficial. We are blessed with outstanding

partners, as organizations and the individuals that work within them. The EFR training was a chance

to help improve the organizations and ultimately make the projects safer for everyone involved. The

wider community of Playa del Carmen (inclusive of every child, person and tourist) benefits from

having more people in possession of these skills should some accident befall them.

Perhaps as the Playa projects extend we could expand on this theme and share other things with our

partners, such as the health and safety courses which all GVI staff members undertake or

management training to assist in making all our projects as safe, efficient and professional as

possible.

If you want to find out more information about the childcare project in Playa del Carmen, visit:

http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/volunteer-childcare-projects-mexico

Figure 4 CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR NEW EMERGENCY FIRST

RESPONDERS!!!!!!!!!