Rescue 1122 Enhancing Emergency Response Capacity with 18 Additional Collapsed Structure Search and Rescue (CSSR) Graduates
Feb 6, 2017
A national course on Collapsed Structure Search and Rescue (CSSR) is being conducted during 4- 12 January 2017 by the National Society for Earthquake Technology – Nepal (NSET) under Program for Enhancement of Emergency Response (PEER) stage 4. PEER is funded by the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In Pakistan PEER is being implemented in overall guidance of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)/ National Institute Disaster Management (NIDM) Pakistan. Medical First Responder (MFR) and CSSR courses are conducted in cooperation of Emergency Service Academy (ESA)/ Rescue 1122, in Lahore, Pakistan.
CSSR course is an Eight -day course, however, it has been made 9 days for Pakistan during adaptation considering local religious and cultural activities. CSSR was developed by the USAID OFDA together in collaboration with the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), and NSET. Starting form 1998, the course has been delivered in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines. However, in Stage 4 of PEER (2014-2019), it is focused in South Asian Countries.
CSSR course aims to impart knowledge and skills for assessing and stabilizing damaged structures and searching, locating and extricating trapped victims from collapsed structures. MFR course is prerequisite for CSSR. There are 18 participants, including one female, graduated from recent MFR course. They are representing from ESA/Rescue 1122, Civil Defense, National Highway and Motorway Police and Pakistan (NH&MP) Red Crescent (PRC) and NDMP of different areas of Pakistan namely from Punjab, Gilgit Baltistan Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
CSSR is a pass/fail course, led by a course coordinator, seven lead instructors and four assistant instructors using the interactive lecture method (ILM) of instruction that is objective based, performance oriented, tested, and highly participatory. The experience of the instructors is enriched by the interaction between the participants. All instructors for the current course are invited from Pakistan. A Regional Course Monitor has been invited from Nepalese Army to monitor the course, if the course is being conducted as per the PEER regional standard in terms of course facilities, process, methodology and delivery. The Network of Disaster Management Practitioners (NDMP) is assisting NSET for implementing PEER program in Pakistan.
