Teaching children and young people in schools in Albufeira “appropriate routines and behaviors in an emergency situation” is the objective of the awareness and prevention actions that the Albufeira Municipal Civil Protection Service (SMPC) has been promoting since January in educational establishments in the municipality .
Albufeira City Council hopes to involve “approximately 7 thousand children and young people, from pre-school to secondary school”, in the “Civil Protection Heroes” project.
This year, the activity entitled “Civil Protection Heroes” is aimed at pre-school and 1st cycle students (from 1st to 3rd year), while students in the 4th year of 1st cycle participate in the activity “The First Responder” , «which allows them to learn basic first aid techniques, how to make a call to 112, among other low-complexity tasks».
«At the end, the children are given a First Aid card and an emergency kit to use in the event of a serious accident or catastrophe. It should be noted that the kit, comprising a backpack, dynamo torch, whistle and emergency contacts, is incomplete, with the aim that children can complete it at home with the help of their parents or other family members. For this purpose, they will receive two checklists – emergency kit and emergency pet/animal kit.
Students in the 2nd and 3rd cycle, from 5th to 8th year, will work on the activity “The Importance of Citizens in Civil Protection”, which aims to “educate for prevention and self-protection, inform younger students about the measures they should adopt when catastrophes occur and explain the role of the various Civil Protection agents”.
As for the “Learning to Save/BLS” activity, it aims to “provide students from the 9th to the 12th year with skills in Basic Life Support, with a theoretical and practical component, with a view to training in the classroom to know how to act in a real situation of emergency".
Throughout the month of March, an exhibition with the work carried out in 1 by pre-school and 2023st cycle students, within the scope of this initiative, will be on display in the hall on the 1st floor of the Albufeira Town Hall. The exhibition called “The Risks of Our City” can be visited during the Municipality's business hours (weekdays, from 9:00 am to 17:00 pm).
José Carlos Rolo, mayor of Albufeira, highlighted that «this year the program presents two new features: for students from 9th to 12th year the focus was on transmitting knowledge in BLS – Basic Life Support, while for younger students , Kindergartens and 1st cycle, it was decided to deliver an Emergency Kit».
«Civil Protection is everyone's responsibility, and awareness must begin at school benches, from an early age, so that younger children begin to have their first contact with the topic and older students acquire the necessary skills with in order to know how to act in an emergency or catastrophe situation», believes the mayor.
Cláudia Guedelha, councilor responsible for Civil Protection, in turn, reported on the results achieved with the program in previous years, which «reflect a qualitative leap in the scope of the approach to risks, especially with regard to acquisition and development of skills, participation and civic responsibility”.
«Children and young people feel they are protagonists in changing behaviors in their community, which lead to the creation of a culture of prevention, with significant impacts on minimizing risks, strengthening the Municipality's resilience process within the scope of Civil Protection”», concluded.
“Civil Protection Heroes” is an organization of the Municipality of Albufeira, through the SMPC, in partnership with other agents, namely the Albufeira Volunteer Firefighters, the Portuguese Red Cross – Silves and Albufeira Delegation, Municipal Police, ANSA – Association of Lifeguards of Albufeira, among other entities.
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