“If you witness an attack, first make sure you are not in danger yourself, and only then help others. One victim is already bad, and if you get hurt yourself due to carelessness, it becomes even worse,” says the head of the first aid division at the Ukrainian Red Cross, Nadia Yamnienko.
Today she and her team opened a first aid training center in Kyiv. The facility operates on principles of accessibility and inclusivity. It has a dedicated room for children from 3.5 years old, a space for people with disabilities who use wheelchairs, crutches or prostheses, navigation for the visually impaired, and programs for the hearing impaired. The center accepts trainees daily, including police, the State Emergency Service, veterans, staff, and volunteers of the organization.
Training Tailored to Audience Demand
The duration of courses at the center depends on who comes to learn. Yamnienko explains that for the youngest trainees, sessions cannot last all day, so the program takes into account both age and physical condition.
“Our trainings last from 2 hours to a week. It depends on the program. If we talk about the state re-certification of our State Emergency Service officers, that’s a long program, the course lasts 40 hours,” she says.
Basic first aid training takes two full working days, and systematic work with children and adolescents is built on a series of fifteen visits to the center, each lasting from 15 minutes to two hours.
Demand for courses, according to Nadia, is directly linked to the intensity of attacks. When the situation in Kyiv becomes calmer, the number of volunteers decreases, but with the return of attacks it rises again. There is also an annual plan for cooperation with the police, the prosecutor’s office, State Emergency Service staff, and other specialists, because all employees of these organizations must be able to provide first aid.
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Experience Gained Before and After the Front
Among those who attended the center’s opening was Andriy Vlasik, a serviceman currently undergoing treatment after being wounded in war. He had worked for four years as a first aid instructor at the Ukrainian Red Cross before the war, and continued the work as a combat medic on the front.
“My knowledge helped me a lot. You know, people mostly forget, we are usually taught, but the training is quick because you need to prepare quickly and go to the front line fast. When the center understood what knowledge I had, they asked me to teach first aid to my comrades for two hours in my spare time,” he recalls about training at the learning center.
Vlasik says that these skills allowed him to provide himself with help after his injury and preserve his leg. He points out the difference between providing aid in peacetime and on the battlefield: in a city or village you can call an ambulance, police, or State Emergency Service rescuers, whereas on the front line a person is left alone with their knowledge, skills, and the contents of their personal first aid kit.
“And you must rely only on your knowledge, your skills, and what you have in your personal kit to first help yourself and then your comrades in distress,” he explains.
Despite his injury, Vlasik continues to conduct trainings whenever he is on leave.
“You know, opening a learning center is a great achievement because we are in a country where war has been going on for more than a year. Many people come to our trainings and are amazed to find that there are courses where you can learn to save lives. And this training center is a big step forward. People will know where to go to acquire the necessary skills that truly save lives and health,” says Andriy.
He is convinced that anyone can provide first aid regardless of education, profession, age, or physical ability. Among his trainees are veterans, people with disabilities acquired after returning from the front, who later become instructors themselves. “Everyone can help. It’s just a matter of willingness,” he says.
International Support and Inclusive Methodology
President of the Ukrainian Red Cross, Maksym Dotsenko, emphasizes that the Kyiv center is not the first of its kind in Ukraine: together with it, eight such training centers already operate in the country, and all of them, including the new building, were established with the support of international partners.
“And here, of course, the huge credit goes to partners, because both this building and the other eight centers were financed with the support of the French Red Cross, German Red Cross, Spanish Red Cross, International Committee of the Red Cross, and Norwegian Red Cross,” he says.
According to Dotsenko, the organization is currently supported by fifteen national Red Cross societies that physically operate in Ukraine, and another twenty societies that have been helping remotely since 2022. The experience gained by Ukrainian specialists during the full-scale war is now being shared abroad through annual conferences. The first such event took place in Kyiv, another in London, and a third is planned for Berlin.
Dotsenko also highlights the development of an inclusive first aid training methodology. The Ukrainian team released a first aid manual printed in Braille, which spurred further development of adapted materials for people with disabilities, including veterans returning to civilian life. He notes that this year the first aid team won the “inclusiveness” nomination at the European Championship, beating colleagues from other countries and representing Europe at the world championship in Dubai. These people teach first aid to ordinary Ukrainians.
According to Nadia Yamnienko, more than half a million people have already completed first aid training from the Ukrainian Red Cross. Join the courses through the organization’s website. There you can register yourself or arrange training for your colleagues.
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