Tennessee Red Cross Volunteer's Adventure Teaching Safety Courses in Belize

East Tennessee Volunteer, Mary Franklin, has been crossing international boarders once again to teach American Red Cross Safety courses!  Her latest Red Cross adventure was in Belize City, Belize in October to train people in Lifeguarding basic skills and Instructor Skills. Randy Love, who works in Aquatics for the City of Knoxville Parks and Rec Program, went along with Mary.  These two Volunteer Instructor Trainers have combined their skills in the Knoxville area for over 10 years to train others to be Red Cross Instructors in Water Safety, Lifeguarding, and First Aid/CPR/AED.

This trip came about when the American Red Cross responded to a request from a YWCA employee in Belize who wanted help in developing a program to train lifeguards. The employee contacted the Belize Red Cross Instructor who routinely helped train their guards in CPR and First Aid. The Belize Red Cross contacted the American Field Service Representative for Central America, in Bogota, Columbia, who in turn contacted International Services with the Red Cross.  Mary and Randy worked with the only Red Cross trained Instructor Trainer in FA/CPR/AED while in Belize (and Mary actually knows the Educators who trained him). While the Belize Red Cross will not be certifying the new Lifeguard Instructors, the YWCA employees now have the basics to develop a training program. Up to this point in time, there were no lifeguard training programs in the country.  This training was funded through AHRMED, a Project Addressing Human Rights for More Equitable Development, funded by the European Union. Ponder that for a while: the European Union funding a Red Cross training program in Belize.

Mary travelled for the Red Cross to Myanmar last year.  And while Randy has done several mission trips to Central America countries, and this was his first Red Cross trip.

Together they trained employees from the YMCA, a police officer with Belize City, and members of the Belize Coast Guard. They were all trained in basic lifeguarding skills, First Aid, CPR, and AED skills, as well as Instructor skills needed for training others. The skills they taught in in Belize are the same skills taught for a lifeguarding basic course or Instructor Course here in the USA.  CPR is CPR, and swimming is swimming regardless of where you live!  And the nice thing about this trip was that everyone spoke English.

What is next for this duo?  Mary has another adventure to Vietnam in December for Training Services, and Randy has another mission trip coming up in December to Haiti.