Saturday 14 September is World First Aid Day and Australian Red Cross is aiming to host the nation’s largest ever multicultural first aid training session with free sessions held simultaneously in numerous locations around the country including Perth.
In addition to teaching basic first aid skills, this year’s World First Aid Day will take a global focus: on the day, Australian Red Cross will launch its Essential First Aid Guide in four non-English languages – Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, and Vietnamese.
Fronting the campaign as the Australian Red Cross World First Aid Day official spokesperson is renowned orthopaedic surgeon, author, and former Iraqi refugee, Associate Professor Munjed Al Muderis.
“Australia still has one of the poorest rates of first aid training in the world. This is worrying because unless timely first aid is provided, many severely injured people stand no chance of survival. It can literally be the difference between life and death,” warns Mr Al Muderis.
“Not knowing how to respond in an emergency situation can have tragic consequences for all involved, so it is vital that every Australian is equipped with first aid knowledge to handle an emergency,” he said.
By aiming to host the nation’s largest ever multicultural first aid training sessions around Australia, Australian Red Cross is ensuring that more Australians have access to first aid knowledge. The West Australian training session will be held at the Australian Red Cross Perth office – 110 Goderich Street, East Perth.
“A first aid education is universal. It is important that all members of the community can access this knowledge,” said Australian Red Cross spokesperson and trainer, Janie McCullagh.
“On 14 September, we intend to increase and improve Australia’s low first aid knowledge rates. “We are also inviting all Australians to take action and learn this vital life skill through doing a first aid course,” said Janie McCullagh.
Facts around First Aid
● About 260 children die and 58,000 are hospitalised every year due to unintentional injury in Australia. This means that more Australian children die of injury than die of cancer, asthma and infectious diseases combined.
● Globally, around 140,000 people die each year in situations where their lives could have been saved if somebody had known first aid.
● A person whose heart has stopped has an 80% chance of surviving if CPR is started in the first minute. This goes down to less than 5% survival chance if CPR is not started until 10 minutes later.
WORLD FIRST AID DAY FREE BASIC FIRST AID TRAINING SESSIONS
Seniors interested in taking part in a free basic first aid training session on World First Aid Day should go to www.redcross.org.au/WFAD – places are limited.
TO BOOK FIRST AID TRAINING
CALL – 1800 RED CROSS (733 276) l email learn@redcross.org.au | www.redcross.org.au/learn
