The strongest earthquake in Morocco and unprecedented floods in Libya claimed tens of thousands of lives and caused colossal destruction. The International Civil Defense Organization (ICDO), one of the mandates of which is to train and improve the qualification of rescuers of its member countries, responded and supported both countries. A freelance correspondent visited one of the training grounds in Yerevan, where from September 11 to 15 the international training of the ICDO, organized on the basis of the Russian-Armenian Center for Humanitarian Response, took place and will tell about what usually remains behind the scenes.
Most often, the headlines in newspapers are about numbers. If it is a natural disaster, it is the estimated number of victims and the efforts made by the authorities. The reader’s attention will always be focused on this, which is certainly important and logical. It will be pertinent to cite UN data that over the past two decades, 7,348 natural disasters have occurred worldwide, totalling more than four billion people affected. The figures are horrifying, given that humans are powerless in the face of natural disasters. However, what usually remains behind the scenes and yet plays a paramount role is the work of rescuers, who pull victims out of the rubble in earthquakes or out of fires or rescue them in floods. At the risk of their own lives, they save hundreds of thousands of people.
Rescuers from six ICDO member countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Lebanon gathered at the training ground of the Russian-Armenian Humanitarian Response Center (RAHRC). After a week of theoretical and practical training, on the final day of the training they conducted an examination exercise to rescue victims from the rubble. The evacuation of the “victims” took place in an advanced technological training facility that the ICDO provided the center with this year. The screams of «victims», smoke, and as if in real life, rescuers did their best to pull earthquake «victims» out of the collapsed building. The mannequins were also very realistic, especially their weight.
«Our training is dedicated to earthquake response and rescuing “victims” trapped in the rubble. Accordingly, in order to extract them from there, it is necessary to have skills in working with rescue tools. All week we were engaged in work with pneumatic, hydraulic, hydro-dynamic, and gasoline tools, which are usually used by rescuers to unblock victims from the rubble. Colleagues were trained in special elements of increased complexity. For example, when in reality a person’s arm or leg is clamped, it is necessary to act with maximum precision and caution in order not to cause injuries,»- Sergei Gordyushin, a special training instructor, a rescuer from the Udmurt Republic Rescue Service said.
«This was a high-level training that allowed me to learn a lot about emergency operations and response. These new skills will help me save more people. Of course, I have been involved in disaster rescue before, but this is the first time I have been involved in this kind of emergency operation. I think it is important to get more and more such knowledge and training in order to save more people,» — the rescuer from Algeria, Omar Guenoune believes.
It was the first time the Russian-Armenian Center for Humanitarian Response held international training at the training ground, but according to its director Yuri Polishchuk — this was just the beginning and the first successful experience. «Every year we have retraining from 300 to 500 specialists from Armenia in the field of population and territory protection, training of rescue service, specialists of management staff, fire units, rescuers. Thanks to the ICDO, we have built a unique training complex, which allows us to train specialists in a wide range of fields. These are simulators with open combustion — heat and smoke chamber, in which it is trained to orient in smoke and in complete lack of visibility. Separately, there are simulators for chemical defense specialists, where there is a simulation of leaks of hazardous liquids and it is necessary to eliminate them”, — the director of the center said. The center also has a large complex where training was being held — a rubble that simulates the destruction of a building, in which the participants needed to make passages and look for “victims”. There is also a separate simulator that allows practicing techniques and methods of safe work of rescue units at height. This is the provision of insurance, moving the «victim» on various forms of structures. «This new training complex built by the ICDO expands the range of our activities, allowing us to develop new programs for firefighters and helps us to reach the regional level», — Yuri Polishchuk said.
At the same time, one of the important tasks of the center is humanitarian response both in Armenia and in the countries of the region in case of emergencies. Thus, the center delivered food to the population affected by the armed conflicts in Syria, and twice delivered essentials — tents, blankets, and roofing materials to Iran when there was a severe flood. A lot of humanitarian aid was delivered to Karabakh. Also after catastrophic earthquakes in Turkey, Syria, and Iran, the center sent a humanitarian convoy to Iran.
«Perhaps no country in the world is able to withstand natural and man-made accidents on its own. Armenia is located in a difficult seismic zone and it cannot be ruled out that it may repeat what happened during the Spitak earthquake when about 25,000 people died. Therefore, it is very important that there are organizations like ours, which train rescuers and work to prevent and reduce the risks of disasters”, — Pavel Gyozalyan, co-director of the center, is convinced. “Without highly qualified specialists, it is impossible to resist disasters — natural and man-made. After the modernization of our center, there is no similar organization in the region, which is engaged in such multifunctional tasks — assistance, humanitarian activities, and training of specialists. This is our uniqueness and we have a huge potential for development,»- Pavel Gyozalyan continued.
According to the rescuer from Saudi Arabia Ahmed Alharbi, there were a lot of new things for him in the training, especially in dealing with victims crushed by concrete slabs. It was especially important for him to do it together with colleagues from other countries, «because, after all, we are one team and we have to perform all operations together. We have to react quickly, with an understanding of each other. And we have achieved that. Every country has its own methods of emergency response, and it was valuable to gain new knowledge and skills through this ICDO project here,»- Ahmed Alharbi shared his impressions.
Sabyrzhan Alamanov from Kyrgyzstan, for whom this international training was the first of its kind, was pleasantly surprised that «despite the different languages, the team worked as a single organism, harmoniously and with mutual understanding. In practical exercises there was an excellent exchange of experience”. He believes that humanitarian assistance in each state will have a broader and deeper understanding.
This year, the International Civil Defense Organization conducted 24 courses in different areas, training professionals in different member countries of the organization. «One of the mandates of the ICDO is issues related to training the civil defense services of member countries in the methodologies of other countries. Golf countries have their own methodology, Serbia, Armenia, Russia have their own methodologies. But by and large, when an emergency situation occurs, it is important to save human lives as quickly as possible. All of them have the same approach — it is the time that we have to support a person at the initial moment and save his life in an emergency situation”, — Andrei Kudinov, Vice Secretary General of the ICDO said. “International Civil Defence Organization, in this case together with Russia and Armenia, were able to provide the Russian-Armenian center with an advanced technological training complex precisely to meet the ICDO’s objectives of training specialists from member countries. Of course, I would like to see such complexes appear in African countries, in the Gulf countries, in Nicaragua, and many others. This is our perspective for the next 10-15 years to provide training centers, and institutions of our member countries to expand training opportunities,» — Andrei Kudinov added.
A participant from Bahrain, Ebrahim Alkawari, sharing his impressions, said that the training improved his experience in many ways, he is now more prepared to respond to emergencies both in his own country and ready to help countries like Morocco, which recently experienced a major earthquake, and together it is always easier to cope with a disaster.
Note: The International Civil Defence Organization (ICDO) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to promote the development of national structures to protect civilians, property, and the environment in the event of natural or man-made disasters. It has 60 member countries. The Secretary-General is Njoupuo Yap Mariatou (Cameroon). It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The International Day of Civil Defense is celebrated annually on March 1.
Рhotographe — Andrei Protunkevich
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