Successful BLS Training in Rural Mardan

It always amazes me to see ordinary citizens donating their time from their busy schedule for the benefit of the rural communities. Dr. Rizwan Naeem (APPNA) who flew in from Texas, USA and Dr. Nauman Siddiqui (Disaster Management Center, Abbotabad) who drove all the way from Abbotabad with his team are just such individuals. They spent the entire day at UM Healthcare Trust medical facility in village Zahidabad of rural Mardan District, NWFP imparting the scheduled training (as discussed in our earlier blog) to the rural masses.

Basic Life Support or BLS as it is commonly known is a specialized training that is not only lacking among the paramedics of the urban population, but is completely unknown among the rural health care service providers. But today, at UM Health care Trust, this training was provided to the local Lady Health Workers, medical technicians, pharmacists, medical students, nurses and eager citizens of the community. The course material was highly structured and the class was not only lecture driven but also highly interactive. with multimedia slides, videos, and mannequins, etc. Dr. Nauman, who personally taught the course, took extra pains to translate the material into Urdu (and pushto if required) for the benefit of the population. In the end, a test was conducted for all the participants who were then handed over the certificate for successful completion of the course.

As usual, the volunteers from village Zahidabad (Ashfaq Ahmad, Zahid Husain, Sajid Ali, to name a few) were at the forefront to make this a successful event. They not only gave rides to the distant health workers who could not make it to the training without transport, but also hosted everyone to a wonderfully cooked lunch. They also spared no effort in making sure that all the participants and trainers feel right at home throughout the day.

This was a joint effort of APPNA, Disaster Management Center and UM Healthcare Trust as a service to the local community.
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