Red Cross launches training academy

THE Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross Society (TTRCS) launched its Humanitarian Academy for Research and Education (HARE) at the Red Cross headquarters, Fitzblackman Drive, Wrightson Road Extension, Port of Spain, on March 12.

The academy will help the Red Cross to deliver its training programmes including its well-known cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) course and help the association in revenue generation, said Stephan Kishore, TTRCS crisis manager.

Kishore was also project manager for the creation of the academy, which was marked by a ribbon-cutting and plaque-unveiling ceremony attended by corporate clients.

He spoke to Newsday afterwards.

"We are like several civil society organisations that are faced with a number of challenges. The academy, our training, is one of our biggest income generators.

"There we help the vulnerable people in the country – we do get grants – but one of the solutions to funding challenges is to make our own money, so we will be able to fund the programmes that we want to help people with."

These programmes include disaster preparedness, health outreaches, support to migrants and support to vulnerable TT nationals.

"Funding has to come from somewhere to do these programmes, so one of the solutions that came about was developing a humanitarian academy, so we could expand our training portfolio.

"We are always known for first aid and CPR training, but through the academy we were going to enhance the portfolio of training for emergency medical care.

"We are looking at things like advanced first aid, emergency medical response, psychological first aid, wilderness first aid."

Kishore said the academy would offer new ways to train/learn using new technology, apart from classroom lectures.

"We have simulation rooms, so you have a more hands-on approach when you are learning.

"Using the virtual reality space, we are able to expose persons to more of what a disaster is – if you are in a car crash, what would that be like. It is hard to just talk and make reference to some of these things, because persons may not have had that life experience in TT, so we are using that virtual reality opportunity to train."

He said virtual reality training could help trainees to understand what an earthquake scenario felt like.

"Yes, we are an organisation to help people, but the academy is for income generation, as part of our business services.

"The other business services are our ambulance service where people can rent an ambulance if they have a sports day or an event. we have our kitchen that does catering. We have all these opportunities to generate income.

"But it's not to put into anybody's pocket but to put into the organisation, because we have to do humanitarian work. People need help and that is the opportunity for us to have funds to do that."

Kishore said most of the funding to develop the space for the academy had come from the International Federation of the Red Cross and its capacity building fund.

"It is an investment fund. We have opportunities to apply. You have to develop a proposal and show a business plan, if you are going to be profitable, and forecasts and so on, to see how you are going to recoup the money.

"But they invest in the national societies in the different countries to see how they could become more sustainable."