Safeguard yourself and others around you

As told by Rtr. Lakshani Pathirage

First aid knowledge is invaluable for both yourself and your community. It enables you to guide people who become injured in the event of an accident or an emergency situation until help arrives. First aid skills can be applied at home, workplace or at public locations. Becoming first aid certified not only benefits you as an individual but also your family, friends, co-workers and even the community as a whole.

The main aims and principles of first aid are to preserve life, protect the casualty from further harm, provide pain relief, prevent the injury or illness from becoming worse and provide reassurance.

“Every single person in the world has the capacity to save a life – it is an essential gesture of solidarity. First Aid education should be accessible to all without discrimination.”
Grace Lo

Rotaract Club of University of Moratuwa in collaboration with Rotaract Club of Alumni of University of Moratuwa created a pathway to produce certified paramedics for the betterment of the society through the project “Mora Medics”. The event was held on the 24^th of March at the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa with the participation of around 40 members. The facilitator for the workshop was none other than Sri Lanka’s very own nightingale, Ms. Pushpa Ramyani Zoysa, Training and Triage Team Leader – Accident and Orthopedic Service of National Hospital, Colombo.

Accompanying her were another three facilitators. They taught all the basic first-aid techniques while getting us practically involved throughout the session. At the end of the program, they gave us a group challenge to overcome using our knowledge of first aid. All the groups were able to impress the facilitators by exceeding their expectations. Afterwards, all participants were presented with a valuable certificate by National Hospital, Sri Lanka, identifying the participants as certified paramedics. At the end of the event, tokens of appreciation were presented to our facilitators to show them our gratitude for the massive support that they gave us to execute this event successfully. Finally, we are glad to say all of us enhanced our awareness on first aid and also gained some golden advices which will be valuable and useful for us throughout our lives.

“First Aid used to be recognized as the domain of medical or paramedical personnel. All experts recognize that the general public must be trained in First Aid, because it is effective in saving lives, improving the chances of survival and minimizing the consequences of a road crash or a heart attack.”
Grace Lo