The Department of Co-operative Governance has provided participants of the Community Work Programme (CWP) with accredited health care training. The South African Red Cross Society has been selected to equip the participants with basic medical skills for home based care purposes. Babs Subramanian, training co-ordinator of Red Cross, said that the training took place in the Eastern Cape as well as KwaZulu-Natal, where a total of 196 participants were assessed and found to be competent.

The participants explained the usefulness of having completed their home based care training, saying that it is far easier to assist the sick within their homes than trying to get them to local hospitals which can be far-off and costly.

Patrick Ncgobo, a Red Cross facilitator, added that the impact of the First Aid Training goes beyond merely helping the CWP participants who attend the course. “These CWP participants then return home and teach other home based care volunteers what they have learnt, thus teaching them how to improve their basic care of handling wounds, fractures, resuscitations, burns and bites,” said Mr. Ncgobo.

Nokulunga Ngobese, social development manager at Lima, added that she is highly impressed with the manner in which Red Cross conducted their training and mentioned that Lima is considering appointing Red Cross as their primary service provider for future courses in First Aid and Home Based Care.

Red Cross and Lima representatives gathered together to honour the CWP participants.	Training co-ordinator of Red Cross, Babs Subramanian, awarded the participants with their certificates in First Aid.