By Ashish Sanglikar
PUNE, June 18, 2018: The Rashtriya Life Saving Society RLSS (I) conducted a workshop on life saving, first aid and resuscitation entitled 'Prepare and prevent, don't repair and repent', for the teachers of Don Bosco High School and Junior College, Pune on June 11.
Kavita Sharma who assists her husband Rear Admiral Purushottam Dutt Sharma, AVSM, NM, IN (Retd) founder of RLSS (I) along with Divanshu, Mamta Advani and other members of team conducted the workshop.
Sharma briefed teachers, at the onset, about the history of RLSS (I), its partners, associates, centres, training programmes for all the age groups (students and adults), facilities and operating methods. She narrated an incident in July 1997, when she and her husband witnessed a school bus jumping the rails of Wazirabad bridge near Delhi and plunging into the river, claiming 29 young lives.
Moved by the incident, Purushottam was inspired to launch RLSS (I) on August 2, 1998 - an organisation to empower people with lifesaving skills. Since then, under his leadership, the society has been training youth to help people in distress, covering accidents both on land and in water.
Divanshu, trainer manager of RLSS (I) Pune, through an audio-video presentation showcased how people panic during accidents as they lack safety skills and introduced the teachers to Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).
He further explained the thumb rules of safety, namely, awareness, assessment, action and aftercare. He added that the workshop only trains individuals to be first aiders and not be medical doctors.. Therefore an individual in a situation can only provide first aid safety measures till the time the victim is rushed to hospital.
Divanshu further demonstrated the safety measures that could be taken or given in times of bleeding, chocking, fracture and practically showed the methods of bandage and hand/ human stretchers.
The teachers too actively participated in the demonstration and workshop, which gave them a hands-on experience to handle situations. In the end, Kavita Sharma expressed that the RLSS (I) Pune would like to join hands with Don Bosco, Pune and extend the training programme to students and the parents as well and further reach out to more individuals through school and college.
"It is my first time that I have attended such a workshop teaching safety measure skills and being a teacher it will surely help me handle situations in the classroom and outside," Devendrasingh Thakur, a teacher, said.
"Earlier I used to get scared, and being unaware of the techniques always ran away from situations but today's session has given me the confidence to handle situations to some extent," Poonam Inderkar, another teacher, added.