The government wants to teach students across the country basic life support

This Friday, the Minister of the Interior, José Luis Carneiro, expressed the hope that the pilot project carried out in Mangualda to train students to work in the field of basic life support will be extended throughout the country.

“This is truly fundamental,” the minister defended in statements to journalists in Mangualdà, adding that the government has a National Strategy for Preventive Civil Protection, which points to the need to have “citizens better prepared to take risks” and “qualified to be able to protect.”

“Basic Life Support (BLS) training for 10th grade youth across the country is a priority for the Ministry of Internal Administration, Civil Protection, as well as the Ministry of Education,” he emphasized.

The official was speaking at the Escola Secundária Felismina Alcântara in Mangualda, where this Friday sixteen 10th year students received their first BLS training certificates with automatic external defibrillation as part of a pilot project.

This pilot project is the result of a partnership between the school group and the Humanitarian Association of Volunteer Firefighters of Mangualde (which is a certified training organization) with the support of the National Emergency Management and Civil Protection Directorate.

In Mangualda, approximately 150 10th year students will undergo training (lasting seven hours) during this academic year.

“Today [esta sexta-feira] we have taken the first step towards what I would like to see as a snowball reaching all young people in the 10th grade in the country,” emphasized José Luis Carneiro.

During the ceremony, a government official said that he had indications that the municipality of Bayan and other regions of Tamega-e-Souza were committed to accepting the project.

After the ceremony, journalists were informed that the remaining municipalities of the intermunicipal community of Viseu-Dau-Lafoynes (which includes Mangualde) had also expressed this desire.

“We have humanitarian associations and firefighters all over the country. Firefighters have such potential, such training,” the minister said, given that young people will still have “very important personal skills” that they can then share “with their families.” make communities more capable of taking collective and personal risks.”

The National Strategy for Preventive Civil Protection, published in the Diário da República in 2021, defines 10 priority areas and 136 operational goals that embody projects and activities to be implemented by the central administration, municipal councils and parish councils over a period of 10 years.