A First Aider in Every Home by 2010

Background

Existing
since 1948, MRCS provides relief services to the nation through the
network of 15 branches and 148 chapters spread over all the districts
of the country. The main health services provided by MRCS are

1. First Aid;
2. Ambulance services;
3. Recruitment of non-remunerated voluntary blood donors;
4. Awareness on Avian Flu;
5. HIV/AIDS; and
6. Tsunami
   relief operation, which includes water and sanitation, psycho-social
   support, Community Based First Aid (CBFA), and emergency health care.

All the health programmes are domestically funded either from government or through fund raising drives.
First Aid Programme

MRCS's
FA courses are designed for MRCS members and non-members. The courses
offered to members are FA certificates in schools, basic FA
certificate, and advanced FA certificate. MRCS instructors receive
additional training on teaching methodology, international humanitarian
law, and basic life support. The FA trainings offered to the public
include CPR (8 hours module), basic (20 hours), advanced (23 hours) and
basic life support (14 hours). MRCS has provided training to 93,314
people during the last three years (2003-05), and a total of 259,128
during the last 10 years.

The Daunting Task Ahead

Provision
of training to more than 31,000 people annually reflects a very well
established system in MRCS and provides the obvious impression that
MRCS is capable of doing more. Following the promulgation of a national
policy on August 12, 1995, which envisions one First Aider in

Every
Home (FAIEH), MRCS has expanded its training programme rapidly. The
goal is indeed very ambitious as the country has very few training
institutions capable of providing high class FA training. As a leading
organisation in FA, a great national responsibility is bestowed on MRCS
to contribute towards meeting an indeed very challenging national
target of training about 5 million people nationwide in the next five
years.

MRCS's Strategic Actions

1. MRCS has embarked upon a long-term plan to contribute towards the national target through the following actions:
2. Termed
   as the MRCS Institute and established in line with MRCS's Strategic
   Plan (2005-09) directions, the Institute is tasked with multi­faceted
   responsibilities that mainly relate to both short-term and long-term
   training. A special committee headed by the Deputy National Chairman
   has held several rounds of consultative meetings with inter-alia
   external experts, and has now finalised the organisational structure of
   the Institute, which has four important wings based on different
   functions, including a Centre for FA programmes.
3. MRCS has
   produced and maintained a team of 752 trainers (10 at NHQ and rest in
   the branches). These trainers are graded as Instructors and Senior
   Instructors, and refresher Training of Trainers are regularly organised
   in order to improve the overall standards of FA instruction.
   Professionals such as Doctors, Paramedics and Registered Nurses are
   also appointed as MRCS Instructors in FA. However, they undergo
   orientation on International Red Cross and Red Crescent Principles
   prior to becoming Instructors.
4. MRCS has designed an eight hour special course consisting of lectures and demonstration covering:

• Wounds and Bleeding:  1 hour
• Fractures/Dislocations:  1 hour
• Burns:                           1 hour
• Household Poisoning:    1 hour
• CPR (adult):                  3 hours
• Lifting and Transportation:    1hour

MRCS
has set up a database system (which is still being strengthened) that
facilitates an efficient and prompt tracking of information on various
types of certificates issued and reminders on the expiry dates of the
certificate.

   5. Three Memoranda of Understandings (MoUs) have been signed with two Ministries as follows:

• 1997:
  Ministry of Youth and Sports for an amount of RM 77,000 (about 22.000
  USD) under the SUKOM Project. MRCS has been able to train 770 youths
  under this project.
• 2004: Ministry of Youth and Sports for an
  amount of RM 333,000 (about 90,000 USD) under the National Service
  Programme under which MRCS has trained 1,520 youths.
•  2005:
  Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development has allocated RM
  500,000 (about 138.000 USD) in August 2005 to train 36,220 members of
  various NGOs affiliated to the Ministry.

Key Achievements

Since
the launch of FAIEH, MRCS has been able to train 111,370 persons. Two
branches have contributed to more than two thirds of the achievements.
Sarawak is the most active branch with 42,726 trainees followed by
Perak branch with 32,441. While Pahang and Johor branches are closely
following with 8,982, and 8,850 participants respectively, Penang has
done reasonably satisfactorily with 4,203 participants. Moreover, the
other nine branches need to speed up with a planned target, but two
branches are yet to wake up as they have not trained any person in the
last 10 years.

MRCS Future Plans

MRCS
recognises that FAIEH is a challenging mission to accomplish though not
impossible. It also equally recognises that it has to do more than it
has done so far towards the 2010 goal. Key plans are:

• to develop and sustain a resource pool of qualified and skilled FA Instructors/Trainers of different levels of proficiency,
• to hold regular ToT and refresher courses at the national level,
• to produce standard speakers' kits/presentation materials by NHQ
• to
  remove the gap between Provincial Branches and District Chapters,
  particularly where an integrated approach and cohesiveness is either
  missing or weak.

One of the strategies may be engagement of
teachers as trainers through school and community interventions to
achieve a multiplier effect. MRCS considers the need for the NHQ and
branches to agree on the long-term targets and annual actions plans
towards meeting these targets.

Sustainability

MRCS
faces no resource constraints for this important national
responsibility as the resources generated through normal FA training
and grants provided by the government are adequate to implement the FA
targets.

Conclusion

Though the national
mission of FAIEH may not be accomplished by 2010, the MRCS partnership
with the government in meeting the national objectives provides a very
good model for other NSs in the region to learn from.