A team of 12 Haitians (5 firefighters from the Haitian National Police, 5 from the Association of Volunteer Firefighters of Haiti and 2 officers of the Haitian Armed Forces, left Haiti to Santiago (Chile), as part of a training of trainers of firefighters.

This comprehensive and intensive 8-week training with materials and tools is the first step towards the consolidation of a much larger Haitian Government project for the reinforcement of the first emergency response, of rescue and fire fighting.

This training will be sanctioned by an international certification was made possible thanks to the bilateral collaboration between the Haitian and Chilean governments following the visit in Haiti in March 2017 of Mrs. Michelle Bachelet then President of Chile. During the talks between the two Heads of State, President Jovenel Moïse stressed the desirability of strengthening this axis of cooperation, given the expertise of the Chileans in the field of emergency management.

Note that the curriculum, the modalities, the operationalization of the project and its adaptation to the Haitian context were the result of the reflections and work of the Chile Cooperation Agency (AGCID), the National Fire Academy of Chile and of the Directorate of Civil Protection of Haiti (DPC). This project also benefited from the support and collaboration of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Overseas Disaster Assistance Office (OFDA).

When they return home next December, the new specialists will have as their main mission to work on the training of Haitian firefighters and will be the main link in the project of creating and setting up a National Academy of Firefighters in Haiti.

HL/ HaitiLibre