The Federal Road Safety Corps has partnered with the Health Emergency Initiative and Lay First Responders International for a health training course.
The training aims to build the capacity of thousands of first responders in Nigeria by 2023.
A statement made available to The PUNCH on Monday noted that the initiative was geared towards saving lives during emergencies.
Speaking on the partnership, Executive Director of HEI, Paschal Achunine, said, “This partnership is critical to saving lives in Nigeria. With FRSC’s help, we have important government support for our first responder training programs with LFR. The seal of approval from such an important government agency will help us build trust and confidence in our communities.”
The Sector Commander of FRSC Lagos, Corps Commander Olusegun Ogungbemide, emphasised that the training will help the Corps achieve an important strategic goal: reducing road traffic fatalities by 15%.
This will be done by increasing the chance of survival of crash victims by deploying LFR and HEI-trained first responders.
“We can’t state enough how important FRSC is to our goals in Nigeria,” said Peter Delaney, Executive Director of LFR.
He added, “With their help, first responder training has the support of a major Nigerian government organization. It’s great to see that we’re all united in our goal of helping save lives on the ground in Nigeria.”
Since 2015, HEI has provided life-saving support and prehospital care for accident victims.
The initiative recently partnered with Seplat Energy to teach prehospital skills to secondary school students.
