Psycho-social First Aid training for Curaçao Red Cross volunteers

September 12, 2007

Nineteen volunteers of the Curaçao Red Cross (CRC), overseas branch of the Netherlands Red Cross, have completed a workshop in “Psycho-social First Aid during disasters”.

Last month’s workshop was organised by the CRC and Skuchami, a local organization that deals with mental health. Hugo Rafaëla, the CRC’s volunteer disaster coordinator who works at Skuchami, helped organize the training. Facilitators were Skuchami employees Erwin Staker and Jarmila Melfor, who is herself a CRC volunteer.

The topics discussed were chosen from a relevant American Red Cross handbook and dealt with such issues as “What is a disaster?”, “The concept of Stress and reaction to stress” and “The importance of non verbal communication”. Besides lectures, group exercises were done.

Based on the success of this workshop, Skuchami and the CRC intend to sign an agreement to make this workshop an ongoing project. The ultimate goal will be to train community leaders and other CRC volunteers in the relevant aspects of mental health. The 19 volunteers all received certificates of participation at a brief closing ceremony.