Kosovo: Italian soldiers carry out a first aid training campaign

(To KFOR)
04/09/19

A training campaign on first aid is currently underway in Kosovo, called "My life in Your hands", born from the collaboration between the Regional Command West (RC-W) and the department of sport and culture of the municipality Peč / Pejë, a municipality that falls within the area where the Italian soldiers of the western multinational contingent on a mission in Kosovo operate. The purpose of the initiative is to educate young athletes, belonging to different age groups and from various local sports associations, to intervene in case of cardio-respiratory arrest and trauma of various kinds, through the application of first aid procedures and of resuscitation, aimed at restoring and maintaining vital functions.

The initiative provides for the organization of a series of meetings at the various sports centers that have joined the project, with the involvement of about twenty sports associations and over two hundred young athletes. The course, organized according to a standard theoretical / practical protocol that provides for the acquisition of "life-saving" procedures through the use of didactic mannequins, was characterized by moments of confrontation between the athletes who attended the various meetings and the military health personnel of the RC-W who conducted the activity.

For the realization of the project, the RC-W, an Italian-led multinational operational unit based on the 24th "Peloritani" regiment and framed within the NATO KFOR mission, made use of its own medical assets on mission in Kosovo, using them according to of the "Dual Use", a dual use, not only in conducting normal operational activities, but also in support of the local population, in this specific case, in favor of young athletes belonging to different ethnic groups present in the western sector of Kosovo, united by a unique passion for sport.