Press Release: AFM Receives Grant Award from the Laerdal Foundation for Stop the Bleed® Training Program

July 8, 2024

For Immediate Release:

Africa Fire Mission (AFM) announces a grant award of $44,000 from the Laerdal Foundation for research to begin a Stop the Bleed® training program in Sub-Saharan Africa. The project will be led by Nancy Moore, MSW, LISW-S, Kirstin Henley, MD (Baylor College of Medicine), and Africa Fire Mission volunteers beginning November 2024 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Through this research, we aim to decrease death and disability from life-threatening bleeding through practical, contextualized, skill training for First Responders and community members in Sub-Saharan Africa. AFM’s expertise in developing results driven fire prevention programs in Africa will be used to replicate a train-the-trainer model to facilitate the research over the next 3 years.

Stop the Bleed® is a 5-step curriculum that teaches basic skills in bleeding control at the scene of an accident, empowering bystanders to help a victim with a bleeding wound until professional help arrives. Stop the Bleed® curriculum was originally developed, studied and implemented in the United States by a federal interagency workgroup convened by the National Security Council Staff. 

Stop the Bleed® has demonstrated success in saving lives across the globe, including contextualized training and research in Hyderabad and Bangalore, India which has demonstrated an increase in life saving bystander response from training Indian high school children in Stop the Bleed® techniques from 2018-2022.

Medical partners from the Ramaiah Medical College (Dr. Aruna Ramesh), the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (Dr. Vinay Nadkarni), Pediatric Simulation Training and Research Society (pediSTARS, Dr. Geethanjali Ramachandra), and the GVK Emergency Management Research Institute (Dr. Ramana Rao) launched and studied the program implementation from 2018-2022 in India, and currently serve as advisors for this project in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa Fire Mission will be partnering with the Kenya Council of Emergency Medical Technicians, Chief Fire Officers Association-Kenya and research partners Dr. Amelie von Arnim (Univ of Washington) and the Pediatric Emergency and Critical Care-Kenya (PECC-Kenya) fellowship training program, which will assist in scaling, advocating, and sustaining the Stop the Bleed® program in Africa for years to come.

For additional information for this project, please contact Nancy Moore, nancy@africafiremission.org or 513-620-4236. Donations to support the project can be made to:  https://www.africafiremission.org/donate 

Additional information about Africa Fire Mission and photos are available for media use here:  https://www.africafiremission.org/press

Making an Impact - Stories from Malawi 2024

by Wesley Richmond

In June 2024, Africa Fire Mission had a team travel to several areas across Malawi to assist in firefighter training including community fire prevention training and fire safety instruction. AFM’s commitment to the fire service across Africa has a clear and powerful impact on many people. On this trip, our team members were fortunate to connect with many new people and see the impact our organization has around the world.

Africa Fire Mission’s Program’s Director Mike Kull traveled to Malawi on this trip and saw Africa Fire Mission’s impact in many special ways. Here’s a story in Mike’s words that demonstrates the profound way AFM is impacting people:

“Today was another great day in Africa. We conducted more training and our team has really observed some big steps forward. We are observing the firefighters taking ownership of what we are teaching. 

As happens sometimes, what we had planned and what we did ended up being very different but we have still found success. This year we have the honor of working with a team from the Malawi Defense Force's Airbase here in Zomba. This is our first time working with them and it has been a pleasure. 

We had two really big wins today. The first involved our new friends in the Malawi Defense Force. Yesterday, we taught a different way to deploy the fire hose than is commonly used here. We've taught the same technique a few times in the past, but it hasn't quite taken hold yet. In Blantyre last week, they finally adopted the technique after three years. This was the first time the Defense Force firefighters saw the technique. When we saw their Fire Engine today we observed that they had already switched some of their hose to that style. That was huge step forward in modern firefighting techniques and the team was excited to see the training put immediately into use. 

Our other big win today happened while we were out doing some hands on Bush Fire training. Back home we would call it Wildland Firefighting and it is one of my favorite topics to teach. The win wasn't related to bush fires though. We were out on a narrow road in the bush cutting some fire lines. The road was so narrow the fire trucks had the road partially blocked. After we had wrapped up the training we were still in the roadway. A school bus came along filled with children and when it squeezed around us, the children started shouting, ‘Thomas! Thomas!’ The children recognized one of the firefighters from the fire prevention presentation at their school and they remembered his name. While the firefighters here are usually disrespected by the people, here we saw children who were excited to see their ‘firefighter friend.’ 

Thomas greeting a group of students

These are just two examples of how we are making an impact by walking side by side with the local firefighters, supporting them, encouraging them, empowering them and training them.”

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Africa Fire Mission is committed to making stories like this happen in Malawi and across all of Africa. If you are interested in supporting AFM, you can make a one-time donation here. When you donate to Africa Fire Mission, we immediately put your generosity to work.

Africa Fire Mission at the Inaugural World Fire Congress

by Wesley Richmond

From May 7-8, 2024, delegates from over fifty countries gathered in Washington, DC, USA for the inaugural World Fire Congress. This historic event was established by the US Fire Administration with many other partners to connect the fire service around the world and offer an opportunity to strengthen and empower firefighters and their communities. Members of the Africa Fire Mission team were present during the congress and helped to ensure that representatives from Africa were invited as delegates.

The first day of the Congress was dedicated to two challenges: structural fires and safe responses to them, and the impact of climate change. The second day of the Congress focused on emerging technology and firefighter health and safety. As a result of the Congress, communities of practice will be established that will focus internationally on the four challenges and create strategies for addressing them.

The World Fire Congress will meet every two years. AFM is proud to support this event and we’re excited to meet with the Congress again in 2026! Africa Fire Mission team members will be present to help ensure that the challenges that many fire services in Africa experience are represented and supported. We’re anticipating more countries participating from Africa at the next World Fire Congress and we look forward to African countries engaging in the communities of practice.

Africa Fire Mission at FDIC International 2024

by Wesley Richmond

Africa Fire Mission attended FDIC International this year! The Fire Department Instructors Conference is one of the largest firefighting conferences in the world and it gave our team members a great opportunity to network with members of the fire service community. Our team had a busy week connecting with organizations and collecting gear donations. We’re grateful for all the wonderful people we were able to connect with!

On Friday, April 19th, Africa Fire Mission received the ISFSI Impact Award for our training and instruction in Africa. Executive Director Nancy Moore and Founder Chief David Moore were both present to receive the award.

We were also recognized throughout the convention with signage. Special thanks CarbonX for partnering with us and donating used fire hoods.

It was great to see AFM instructors at FDIC! We appreciate the continued support and look forward to attending FDIC in the years to come.

Serving In Nigeria with FCT Fire Service and IHVN

It was great to be back in Abuja, Nigeria in January and early February!

An AFM team of six provided training to FCT firefighters, IHVN staff and partners from the “Committee of Stakeholders on the General Safety & Security of Cadastral Zone C00 Abuja FCT.” The training allowed the AFM team to assess the capabilities of the firefighters as well as gain a better understanding of the community’s perspective of firefighters. Training for the FCT Fire Service focused on enhancing fire response capabilities, promoting utilization of available equipment and tools for firefighting, and enhancing community awareness.

Team member Mike Kull elaborated that “we were able to provide quality training on a wide variety of topics - Breathing Apparatus, Ladders, Hose Drills - Firefighters from FCT Fire Service were eager to learn and we expect to see rapid and positive results from this training. We realize that development is a slow process but we have high hopes for the firefighters here in Nigeria.”

Head of Operations, FCT Fire Service, Engr. Adesina Abioye, stated that the training has updated Fire Service Staff with modern professional ways of rescue and firefighting, and served as a refresher course on fire prevention and administration for the Senior Staff who participated. “The importance of the partnership cannot be overemphasized; it has brought tremendous benefits to the partners and the stakeholders community. What would have cost the FCT administration a huge sum of money was made available at no cost due to partnership,” he said.

AFM also conducted a needs assessment to identify tools and equipment needed to further develop the FCT Fire Service and donated firefighting equipment. This equipment included firefighting coats, boots, gloves, suspenders and helmets for enhanced effectiveness in responding to fire incidents and saving lives, property, and critical infrastructure.

We are grateful that IHVN is committed to collaborating with FCT Fire Service to enhance the capabilities of the fire service and look forward to continued collaboration in Nigeria.