Dozens of parents, grandparents and persons who do not yet have children learned how to give first aid to children in different possible incidents and emergencies. The training seminar was staged by the REPEMOL (Regionalization of Pediatric Emergency and Intensive Care Services in the Republic of Moldova) Project as part of the event held to mark 15 years of work by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Moldova.
Employees of a number of preschool education institutions were earlier involved in similar informational activities. Parents from a number of villages and towns where the number of accidents involving children is high will also be trained.
Contacted by IPN, Tatiana Purciuc, training coordinator within the REPEMOL Project, said each grownup should know how to give first aid to a child because an accident can happen at any moment. “For a child, even one minute without breathing can cause negative effects and we thus must know at least how to open the respiratory system and keep it open,” she stated.
About 15 training seminars for over 250 pedagogues from kindergartens of Chisinau municipality were staged so far. Members of community and teachers from regions will start to be trained this summer. Ten sessions are planned in to be held in communities with the highest number of accidents and poisonings among children. One of the training seminars will be staged in Carpineni village of Hancesti district, which has a population of over 10,000. The incidence of accidents and poisonings involving children is very great in Ungheni, Cimislia and other districts. At the request of mayors, seminars can also be held in other communities.
According to specialists, such training seminars must be organized regularly, as it is done abroad. “We assess their knowledge before the courses and after them and the difference is very great. The participants said these courses help them. In a kindergarten in Chisinau, the educator saw that a child went into convulsions and took him in her arms to the director at a time when she should have put the child on a flat surface and should have kept his head so that this didn’t hit it,” stated Tatiana Purciuc.
Natalia Solovei, one of the mothers who took part in the training seminar within the festive event, said she has two children, aged one and seven, but didn’t know very well how to give first aid in case of asphyxiation, for example. “I think such seminars will be very useful in villages, where an ambulance comes not so swiftly,” she stated.
Marina Soloviova, who is the mother of a two-year-old child, said she read how to give first aid, but didn’t try the maneuvers herself. She considers that these lessons can help her save her and other children in the future.
During seven years, the REPEMOL Project, in cooperation with the authorities, has taught parents how to prevent home accidents involving children younger than five within the campaign “A danger-free home for your child”. The project is financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and is implemented by the Foundation “Center for Health Policies and Services” in Moldova.
