Community Benefits from First Aid training at the Maarifa Centre

Ndhiwa constituency counts itself lucky as Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre links 43 group representatives with First Aid Africa; a humanitarian organization working primarily in East-Africa to improve access to education in First Aid amongst the wider population. From research, statistics indicate that every year, millions of deaths and infections could be avoided with a small amount of medical knowledge and equipment.

In Africa, the need for First Aid is perhaps most obvious, yet access to even basic equipment and training remains poor. First Aid Africa is a not-for-profit organization which aims to provide, and encourage access to, first aid equipment and education in first aid.

Both we, Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre and First Aid Africa, believe that access to the simple yet life-saving knowledge of first aid should be available to everyone regardless of age, gender, race, religion or social status.

The organization’s mission is to equip as many people as possible with the knowledge, skills and equipment to respond in an emergency, and ultimately, save or improve a patient's quality of life.

The 43 chosen community members are meeting for four weeks on every Wednesday for 2 hours as from 10.00 am to 12.00 pm and the greatest bit of this training is that the people are being trained by professionals at no fee and their after, the qualified shall be issued with an internationally recognized certificate.

In Kenya for one to access such trainings today, the least you are expected to part with is Kshs. 5000, excluding your travels, accommodation, meals, e.t.c First Aid Africa chose on Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre as their community entry point due to the communities trust on this centre and its broader perspective of its daily clients.

The training is of much relevance to the community members here since there are frequent accidents at the domestic levels and access to immediate medical facility is usually next to null depending on their proximity such.

The training touches on very practical situations that require immediate first aid skills like snake bites, small and deep cuts, shocks, burns, unconscious causality e.t.c. and they also issue them the first aid kit.

As Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre in collaboration with First Aid Africa, we are going to ensure that the current trainees continue training more people both at the centre and in various schools by initiating a first aid team at the centre and it become one of the centres activities. Through this we are going to sustain this knowledge and still pass it on to multiple generations.