Indonesia: Johanniter trained over 20,000 people in first aid and disaster preparedness

Berlin – Together with the German Foreign Office, Johanniter trained in the last 12 months in Aceh, Medan and on the island Nias over 20,000 people in first aid and disaster Ppreparedness. Therefore Johanniter office in Medan, Indonesia, organized a training of trainers and established capacities in order to train the vulnerable population in the disaster areas.

Johanniter and German Foreign Office had designed this project due to the high demand and gap for free of charge courses for the poor population. “The target was to improve the first responder capacities after catastrophes, attacks, accidents and illnesses”, explains Mrs. Dr. Dagmar Buck from Johanniter office Medan.

In over 1,000 courses the trainers taught mixed groups, women groups, children in different communities, schools, local NGOs and other local institutions. Topics were the adequate behaviour after a Tsunami, an earthquake, floods, landslides, volcano eruptions or cyclones, in order to keep calm and react cautiously.

“Participants – especially women and students - are very industrious to tell friends, neighbours and family members about the freshly gained knowledge. Therefore you can count about 102.000 to 122.000 indirect beneficiaries of the trainings“, Mrs Buck says.

Due to the still high demand of the courses, Johanniter will continue the trainings at least until the end of the year. Following the recommendation of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, Johanniter is going to extent the programme to the most oriental province of Indonesia, West Papua.