ISLAMABAD: The federal government would soon launch a national programme to teach life-saving skills to the people, as the country is prone to natural disasters.

“The CPR training programme would be started across the country to train people to provide emergency resuscitation and save lives,” Salman Sufi, the head of Prime Minister’s Strategic Reforms Unit, said in a statement on Saturday.

In the past many years, Pakistan has faced many natural disasters in form of floods, landslides, and earthquakes. Experts also attribute climate change as one of the factors in the heatwaves and wildfires.

“An estimated population of 49 million resides in areas at risk of a four-to-five per cent decline in quality of life by 2030 due to climate change,” said the World Bank report ‘South Asia Climate Change Action Plan 2021-25’ published on October 29, 2021. “Increasingly intense and frequent floods have caused substantial physical damage affecting more than 30 million people since 2010, with damages and losses exceeding $14 billion.”

Sufi added that the logo of ‘PM Life Savers Team’ under the National Initiative for CPR training had been issued. A citizen can become a member of the life saver team of the prime minister by registering himself with the local health department, 1122 emergency service or a designated hospital.

The person after getting training will pledge to train 10 people in his neighbourhood. PM Shehbaz Sharif would soon inaugurate this training initiative

“The person who will train a maximum number of citizens will be given a commendation certificate by the prime minister,” he said, “The aim of the campaign is to make citizens capable of saving precious lives.

What is CPR?

CPR is a potentially life-saving technique that helps maintain blood circulation when someone’s heart stops beating, Sufi told PTV News last week. Performing CPR in time can help in emergency situations where immediate medical help is not available.