The Ghana Red Cross Society will be deploying 60,000 volunteers across the country to respond to health emergencies in the country’s general elections.

Some electorate, after joining queues for long hours to cast their votes on election day do grow weak or faint, and often need immediate medical attention.

The support given to the sick and accident victims remains critical to save lives. First aid is the initial management and assurance given the sick before taken to a health facility.

The Red Cross Society has been at the forefront of administering first aid services to the sick and others in emergency situations.

Ashanti Regional Manager of the Society, Michael Kwame Asante, says volunteers will be on stand-by to provide first aid services at polling stations.

“We want the Electoral Commission or the government to see us as an integral part of the whole process. As they deploy police or the security personnel to the polling stations, if we have one first aider also there, it will give confidence to the staff working and also people that come around,” he stated.

The organization is also embarking on series of training on administering first aid for key interest groups involved in the election process, including the media and education workers.

Media Training

Media personnel are often the first to receive information of accident emergencies and sometimes also get involved in road accidents whilst on campaign trails of politicians.

But responding to public health emergencies could be a challenge without the basic knowledge and skills to prevent further exposure to injuries and to save lives.

As part of activities to commemorate World Red Cross Day, the Society organized first aid and emergency training for media personnel in the Ashanti region.

Participants, who got exposed to the theory and practice of first aid to help casualties, were excited at the opportunity to learn how to save lives.

Mr. Asante told TV3 the exercise is mainly aimed at empowering the media to save themselves and others in the event of violent infractions and accidents in this electioneering season.

“We are training the journalists so that when they go around following the political campaigns, they’ll have the knowledge to attend to casualties before they are sent to the hospital,” he noted.

The training will be extended to other regions when the pilot is successful.

The Ghana Red Cross Society however says inadequate funding is impeding wide-scale training in first aid application.