First Aid in Schools

Try and visualise teachers in rural Malawi, making the lives of children in their care, safer and healthier as a result of first aid training. Well that is exactly what has been happening with one of our volunteers, Veronica, a retired nurse picking up the mantle and systematically training teachers in the schools in St Michael’s Zone. One of the important skills Veronica has taught the teachers is to improvise, an essential task here where resources are scarce. In their practice teachers have become adept at producing effective slings using ties, scarves and belts. More traditionally shaped slings have been made from old jitenjies (the wrappers worn by most women)

We have heard stories of how teachers have used their first aid skills and were delighted to hear that a couple of them were complimented by hospital doctors for the professional way they they secured broken limbs, avoiding further damage as the children were ridden along bumpy dirt tracks to the hospital. The schools now all possess a first aid box which is managed by an appointed teacher in each establishment

Just recently Veronica shared her skills in secondary schools and was quite surprised when she turned up to train the teachers at Umodzi school to discover that she was delivering a session not just to 15 teachers but additionally to over 300 learners