(L-R) Lim, Arivendran, Kho, Hew and Beh proudly posing with their team’s awards.
Miri – 23 August 2013 – The Malaysian Red Crescent Voluntary Aid Detachment 57 (VAD 57) of Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak) emerged in second place in the recent the 40th Inter-Unit First Aid Competition 2013, in addition to bagging the Best Bandaging & Immobilising Relay Award in the competition.
The VAD 57 team comprised team leader Kho Duh Guan, Sheron Lim Gek Joo, Kelvin Hew Qi Rong, Arivendran Baskaran and Stacey Beh Saw Chen.
The annual competition held at the Malaysian Red Crescent, Miri Chapter headquarters here aims to enhance the first aid knowledge and skills of Red Crescent members, as well as foster a competitive spirit and camaraderie among them.
The 3-day competition included a Traditional-Based Team Test, Quiz Bee, Community-Based Team Test and Bandaging & Immobilising Relay.
In last year’s competition, the Curtin VAD 57 also came in second and was awarded the Best Quiz Bee Award.
According to Kho, the team members had sacrificed their recent semester break to prepare for the competition and were thus overjoyed at winning.
“The effort we put into the competition was well worth it, and in addition to the awards, we have garnered valuable knowledge and skills which we can readily apply in emergency situations in the future,” he remarked.
Team member Lim commented that by joining such a competition, participants can be better prepared to handle injuries and save lives. Hew, meanwhile, hopes the VAD 57 team will make a better showing in the next competition. Beh said the team members developed a strong bond during their training sessions and that it was a most memorable experience for them, while Arivendran opined that focusing on bandaging and immobilising alone is not enough and hoped that the competition format will be refined to include other critical skills.
“First aid generally means mitigation involving taking appropriate steps when dealing with cases such as fever, malnutrition for toddlers, diarrhoea, pressure sores and many more. Competitions such as this definitely provide us with great learning opportunities,” said Arivendran.
VAD 57 has organised a number of activities of its own to enhance the knowledge and skills of its members in the past, including Ambulance Service Training in collaboration with the Miri Hospital and an educational visit to the hospital to learn more about first aid and the handling of emergency cases.
For more information on VAD 57, email [email protected] or visit the VAD 57 Facebook page at www.facebook.com/VAD57.
For more information on Curtin Sarawak, visit its website at www.curtin.edu.my, its Facebook page at facebook.com/CurtinUniversitySarawakMalaysia, Twitter profile at twitter.com/curtinsarawak, YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/CurtinUniSarawak, or Instagram at instagram.com/curtinsarawak.
Curtin VAD 57 team members in a photo call after the Traditional-Based Team Test.
