By Zainab Sunkary Koroma
The 23rd batch of the Chinese Medical Team in Sierra Leone has provided First Aid training for first witnesses in some poor localities.
On Sunday, several Local Communities including Hastings, Jui, Waterloo, Bureh, York, Wellington, and Tombo were provided with the training model by the Chinese Medical Team.
The Team had found out that most Sierra Leoneans don’t know how do an emergency first aid treatment in an emergency situation which leads to early death.
Dr Zhou Xi, Head of the Chinese Medical Team, told this press that in most cases when an injury or illness occurs, the decisive role of first aid is often not played by professional rescuers in the hospital, but by the first responder at the initial scene. “One of the important skills is Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR),” she said, adding that it can help save a life during a cardiac or breathing emergency.
“If someone is unconscious and not breathing normally, start CPR straight away; otherwise, that person will die in minutes,” Dr Zhou remarked, saying it is greatly necessary to train the public with first aid knowledge and skills.
“As far as we know, people here would enjoy this kind of activity and get the skill. And we can better understand each other and make friends by the way,” she said.
Ren Zhen a Chinese Traditional Medical Doctor, who performs acupuncture used her skills to treat and train local people. She stated that the friendships between Sierra Leone and China is strong, which is why they are in the country to give an aiding hand in terms of medical care. Hence she is happy to treat people in the vulnerable communities. She furthered that most people she treated had been complaining of body pain mainly due to the raining season harsh weather. She therefore advised people to enjoy the sunshine because “it helps a lot”.
“It is an emergency First Aid training and treatment to help people understand that it is important for an emergency situation before going to the hospital,” she said, adding: “It will help save lives.”
Liu Meng, a consultant at the Sierra Leone-Chinese Friendship Hospital, said he is happy to see Sierra Leoneans showing interest in learning first-aid treatment skills, noting that their target areas are mainly rural communities.
Kamanda Kemoh, one of the beneficiaries at the Hastings Community who doubles as a Senior Nurse at the Sierra Leone-Chinese Friendship Hospital, said his community would benefit a lot from the skills he has gained from the Chinese Medical Team, revealing further that he was grateful to see that people in his community were getting free treatments to help keep them alive and healthy.
In recent decades China has made the significant transformation from aid-recipient to aid-donor. China’s extensive foreign aid program includes eight categories: civil projects, goods and materials, technical cooperation, human resource development, health assistance, emergency humanitarian aid, volunteer programs and debt relief. Health is a critical piece of the foreign aid program and an important avenue for China’s role in global health. Health aid is delivered through the Chinese medical teams (CMTs), hospital construction, pharmaceutical and equipment donations, and public health/health security program support including malaria, and health professional training programs.
