YRC- Mass Awareness Programme

Madhumita C

On Campus Sep 2, 2017

On a fine Saturday morning, when the campus was quite calm and was basked in the city’s pleasant weather, the IM Yoga hall was bustling with students dressed in red and white; the students of Youth Red Cross were buzzing around the hall in preparation for the “Mass Awareness Program”. Soon after this, the hall was abound with a fervent crowd of students.

Inauguration of the event by Dr. Natrajan, Dean - Student Affairs

The event was inaugurated by Mr.Natrajan, Dean-Student Affairs, following a small psalm. The guest speakers, Mr.Vigneswar & Mr.Neelakandan from ALERT organization were given a warm welcome by the YRC–ians. Without much ado, the event commenced with Mr.Neelakandan delivering a small preface about ALERT.

‘ALERT – we care’ is a Non Governmental organization in Chennai that educates and trains people on emergency response and First aid. The vision of ALERT is to light the spark of the ‘Good Samaritan’ in ‘one in every family’.

Mr. Neelakandan demonstrating how one should react in an accident scenario. He educated the audience about basic life support techniques and how a common man should react in an accident scenario, by demonstrating it with an artificial replica of a human body.

Unlike usual guest lectures, this event was made interactive by Mr.Neelakandan, by keeping the audience in awe throughout the session. He also gave a brief note on how one should react and give first aid in case of bleeding, animal bites and fire injuries. In addition to that, he taught how to perform CPR (Cardiovascular Pulmonary Resuscitation) in extreme emergency situations. He made the session more interesting by selecting few students from the audience to act in the emergency scene scripted by him. Mr.Neelakandan, with his zesty humour and informative content, kept the audience engaged throughout the session.

After fetching ample of information from Mr. Neelakandan ,there existed an ambiguity among the students to lend a helping hand in case of an emergency, the main concern being the legal issues one has to face after rendering help to the victim. He clarified this by giving a brief description about the ‘Motor vehicle act, Amendment -134, 1988’. ” The first person who offers help to the victim in an emergency, need not face any legal issues and has the complete rights to deny the enquiries done by the police department” he added.

The audience giving feedback to Mr. Neelakandan regarding the session

Finally, Mrs.Meghala from the department of Computational Science and Applied Mathematics presented a memento to Mr.Neelagandan on behalf of YRC club. The YRC pledge was recited by the gathering which was followed by the Vote of thanks to express their gratitude towards the ALERT organization, Mr.Neelakandan & Mr.Vigneswaran for accepting the cordial invitation of the YRC club and conducting this wonderful program free of cost and making it a great success.

The event came to an end by expressing gratitude to the nation with the National anthem.

Accidents happen. Someone chokes on an ice cube or gets stung by a bee. It is important for a common man to have a basic knowledge on emergency first aid to avoid easily preventable fatalities. The information gained here is sure to spread and help create awareness among the student community regarding first aid.