Jadarls Foundation, a subsidiary of the Jadarls Group of Companies, has organised a Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and first aid training for commercial vehicle operators in the La Nkwantanang Municipality in Accra.
The training, which was organised in partnership with the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC), aims at providing life-saving basic knowledge to drivers to enable them to attend to victims of accidents whenever the need arises.
Programme Lead for Jadarls Foundation, Davida Pappoe, said the foundation has prioritised two main sectors that it will be supporting this year, the first of which is the training of the commercial drivers. She said the beneficiaries were selected due to the nature of their work.
“For this year, we are focusing on health and education, and this is our first programme of the year. This is dear to our heart because we realised that most people died needless death in accidents. We have a series of training, but our focus today will be on commercial drivers; so we are working with drivers in the La-Nkwantanang area – Madina and its environs – and we are training them on CPR first aid application,” she said.
She added that the training will be a continuous one for other drivers within Accra, with plans to extend it to other regions as well.
As part of the training, the drivers were given first aid kits, educational stickers and pen drives that contained video clips of how to apply first aid.
In all, about 65 drivers benefitted from the training. They are also expected to become trainers of other drivers.
“We are seeking to impact over 2,000 drivers as we expect the beneficiaries go back to train others. We will be present with representatives from the UGMC to monitor the trainings so as to make sure they are doing the right thing and where they fall short, we will step in,” she said.
For his part, the Secretary for Madina-Somanya Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Joseph Arthur, said the training would benefit the entire association and passengers alike.
“We have a huge membership size; therefore, this training will help us in attending to petty incidents that occur. Our work involves a lot of risks, therefore, with this coming onboard, it will help us understand the things to do when minor accidents occur,” he said.
Deputy Director, Medical Training and Simulation Centre at UGMC, Dr. Gladys Nuama, said it is important for organisations to have some of their staff trained on CPR to enable them respond to emergencies.
“Ideally, this is first aid and you do not know what might happen, so it is very important that other organisations equally bring their staff for training to provide assistance in cases of cardiac arrest or related issues,” she noted.
