First Aid
Following our successful road safety awareness campaign, we launched a first aid awareness campaign to equip community members with the skills and knowledge they need to respond to emergencies. Our first aid campaign focused on teachingpeople how to recognize common injuries and illnesses, provide basic first aid treatment, and how to respond in emergency situations. We believe that by promoting first aid education and awareness, we can help young people become more confident and capable in responding to emergencies, and ultimately create a safer and healthier community for all.
What we did
The first aid awareness campaign was held on the 5th July 2022 at Solar Kitchen, in the alleyway. It was identified as a topic of priority and interest after the previous road safety awareness campaign, and with the cooperation and enthusiasm from the Auroville security service team it became approachable.
We prepared 8 infographics, showing the statistics and hence the need for first aid training; along with DR’S ABCD, a mnemonic for the steps to basic life support techniques for the first responder.
This was also printed into flyers that we gave away, along with emergency numbers cards and stickers.
Survey
We have counted 70 participants for our onsite survey, of which 13 people claimed to have received first aid training. However, upon further questioning, most of them had received the training 2 or more years ago.
240 votes were made on the onsite survey,
129 been in
52 seen
59 helped in.
Wounds, burns, and dog bites were situations which were most prevalent, followed by fracture and severe bleeding. We suspect that people may not have understood the difference between wounds and severe bleeding.
Wounds and burns were also situations that most people have helped in, which correlates with the previous figures.
Interestingly, less people have confirmed to have been in the following situations than to have helped / seen it: Seizure, heart attack, hypoglycemia, CPR, stroke and unresponsive victim. Note that they are all situations that have a higher mortality rate.
For the follow up, we have conducted 3 First Aid workshops; two for general public and one at the request of Thamarai After school. We plan to come back with a more extensive first aid course, in collaboration with Auroville Ambulance team and Auroville Safety and Security Team (AVSST).
Read about our previous campaign!