March 2020 was a month of growth for AFM! We were privileged to go to Ghana to work with Medical Ambassadors International (MAI) and to begin exploring partnerships with the Ghana National Fire Service.
With MAI – we participated as trainers in their program at the Africa Internship Center in the North Tongu District. For five weeks, individuals representing ministries from all of West Africa participated in Community Health Education (CHE) internships and AFM was asked to provide a 2-day workshop on our CHE community fire prevention and sensitization programs.
There were ministry leaders from: Togo, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Benin, Liberia, and Cape Verde. 80% of those leaders had had a traumatic experience with fire in their lifetime, many of them had more than one traumatic experience. We had the privilege of training the them in basic fire safety and response with our Fire Safety curriculum
These leaders are now also trained trainers of our curriculum and are prepared to take the lessons out into their communities. We look forward to hearing stories of changed lives in West Africa!
We were able to provide training to 40 firefighters in the North Tongu District and West Ada District and were able to collaborate with fire service leadership in Winneba, Ghana and at the National Fire and Training School. We were also honored to meet with National Chief Fire Officer Edwin Ekow Blankson. Chief Blankson explained the structure and current status of the fire service in Ghana and we had a highly productive discussion of how AFM can help to empower, support, train and encourage the Ghana National Fire Service.
The fire service in Ghana has over 7500 firefighters, 200 fire stations and a large well-organized fire service and training academy. However they lack ongoing firefighter development training and their personal protective equipment (PPE) is very scarce. AFM is working to engage the Ghanaian fire trainers in advancing their knowledge allowing them to be able to expand the trainings that the firefighters receive as well as expanding the availability of PPE in Ghana.
Plans for future work in Ghana are ongoing even during this time of pandemic shutdown and uncertainly. We look forward to being able to fully implement plans for PPE and training support when travel is once again safe.