On a trip to southern and eastern Africa several years ago, I had the opportunity to spend some time with many fire departments along the way. Most of these fire departments had decent equipment, all of them had dedicated firefighters, but almost none of them had sufficient training. The problem is that international aid organizations often provide fire suppression equipment, but no training. Most of the fire departments I visited did not have a single training manual.
Before the advent of cell phones, one could argue that because of the lack of a wired telephone infrastructure it was nearly impossible to alert the fire department quickly enough to make a difference. Cell phone technology has spread very quickly through south and east Africa and, today, most households have a cell phone. This means that fire departments now matter. A well trained fire department could provide effective fire suppression, but also provide timely medical interventions.
NGOs such as the red-cross and doctors without borders do provide medical aid to certain areas, but this is typically more advanced care and I am unsure about how much emphasis is placed on training locals in basic medical care. Training African fire departments to provide basic EMT skills such as wound care, splinting, and child birth could potentially make a big difference.
Zimamoto means “put the fire out” in Swahili. Zimamoto is an attempt to help “put the fire out” by providing annual fire, rescue, and EMS training to different third-world fire departments. Because the only real expense is providing airfare to send fire department trainers over to Africa, even small donations will go a long way in keeping the Zimamoto program going. Please consider donating even $5 or $1o to a good cause.
