April 2014

Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Certifying our partners from the Childcare and health project
with Emergency First Responder training
SUMMARY
The Playa Community team delivered vital first aid training to our implementing partners at the Save
the Children Ludoteca (toy library) and the Special Needs School. This extremely valuable knowledge
enables GVI to foster a safe and nurturing environment for all whom we serve he re in Playa and the
community as a whole.
REPORT
This month has been a very active and successful one for the GVI community Playa hub. A major
success was the delivering of the Emergency First Responder (EFR) training course to our partners
here in Playa del Carmen. Not only are we equipping them with lifesaving skills, we are creating a
safer environment for the wider community. Knowledge is empowering in all forms, but the critical
knowledge of how to potentially save a life or prevent death, transcends this.

Figure 1. Full house at the EFR training with our partners from Save the Children and the Equine therapy
and Integral Care Center

There are approx. 4 million traffic accidents registered in Mexico each year, claiming the lives of
24,000 people.1 In conjunction with work related accidents and other incidents of random nature, it
is imperative that all of the staff within GVI and our partners are equipped to assist in th ese
emergencies. By providing emergency treatment you could be potentially saving their lives, or
minimizing the lasting damage to their health. This if possible, is even more critical to our partners
who work with vulnerable people on a daily basis. The children are vulnerable and in our care, we
therefore have a duty to do everything in our power to maintain a safe environment.

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?Articleld=385814&Categoryld=14091 accessed on 25/04/2014

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In total we have trained all 9 Ludotecarias from

the Save the Children Ludotecas in Playa del
Carmen and Tulum, and 3 members of the Special
Needs School from the Equine therapy and
Integral Care center throughout the month of
April. In preparation for their training the new
EFR recruits were given a booklet of basic
information to read to assist them in
understanding the material that was going to be
presented to them. All new GVI volunteers
undertake this training at the inception of their
placement. Once the staff members at our Figure 2 The ladies from the Save the Children
projects are all trained, there will be a minimum Ludoteca responding urgently to an emergency
scenario
of three EFR responders on site.
The training was delivered with the help of three GVI members of staff. Alex and Cynthia (our EFR
trainers) conducted the course throughout the day with the assistance of videos and a real life
mannequin in the form of Maddie our intern. During this initial phase the EFR teaches you how to
respond to an emergency, what you should do, who you should contact and how to administer
potentially lifesaving treatment until professional help arrives. Having listened and watched
attentively to the instruction it was then time to practice their newly acquired skills on our live
mannequin, to the amusement of all involved.
This training included how to respond to emergencies with children.
This is particularly relevant for the Ludotecarias who deal with up to
100 children in one day. It is also relevant to the special needs
school, for although they are dealing with children with far more
complex medical needs, the basic treatment in life threatening
situations is universal and an essential skill for anyone working with
vulnerable people to possess.

Figure 3 A Ludotecaria learning

how to help in case of choking for
children and babies

In addition to dealing with urgent life threatening injury, the EFR

also trains practitioners in secondary injury care such as splints,
minor head injuries and other non-life threatening injuries. These
are the skills that are most frequently required by emergency
responders, particularly those working with children. The
ludotecarias often have to deal with large numbers of play related
injuries such as scraped knees and bump heads. Equally sometimes
more than a basic dressing can be required and a more advanced
skill is required to treat the injury.

To asses our recruits understanding of the course, we tested them with a mock real life situation.
Emergency scenarios included people falling down the stairs, choking, serious bleeding,
unresponsiveness, for both adults and children.
These live scenarios are an excellent way of putting the skills learned into practice and visualizing

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how you would apply them in a real life crisis.

After a challenging couple of days of training, our brave recruits had to toil through an exam about
everything they had learnt, that they all passed with excellence.

Figure 4 CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR N EW EMERGENCY FIRST

RESPON DERS!!!!!!!!!

It was a pleasure to share imperative knowledge with our implementing partners. Our volunteers
and staff learn many things every day from them here in Playa, therefore, to be able to return the
favor and with something so vital, is enormously gratifying. Our partnership with them is
collaborative and is always intended to be mutually beneficial. We are blessed with outstanding
partners, as organizations and the individuals that work within them. The EFR training was a chance
to help improve the organizations and ultimately make the projects safer for everyone involved. The
wider community of Playa del Carmen (inclusive of every child, person and tourist) benefits from
having more people in possession of these skills should some accident befall them.
Perhaps as the Playa projects extend we could expand on this theme and share other things with our
partners, such as the health and safety courses which all GVI staff members undertake or
management training to assist in making all our projects as safe, efficient and professional as
possible.
If you want to find out more information about the childcare project in Playa del Carmen, visit:
http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/volunteer-childcare-projects-mexico

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