In late October, a group of International Medical Corps trainers convened in the sweltering heat of Maiduguri, Nigeria, to train frontline government healthcare workers from Borno and Katsina states—two states with enormous humanitarian needs stemming from armed conflict, widespread hunger and displacement. To maximize the improvement to local health outcomes, our Emergency Response Unit (ERU) selected participants from rural clinics and hospitals with limited resources to take part in a two-week intensive-training program designed to equip participants with skills to respond to emergencies such as natural disasters, outbreaks of disease and mass casualty events.
Plans for the training program began in September 2024, when floods devastated Borno State, affecting more than 1 million people. International Medical Corps responded to the floods, providing more than 40,000 Nigerians with healthcare, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene services. Afterward, our country team met with the Nigerian Ministry of Health (MoH) to coordinate a training and capacity-building response plan focused on providing the skills and knowledge necessary to save lives in the face of potentially life-threatening injuries.
During the October training, our team led students through the WHO’s Basic Emergency Care learning program, using hands-on exercises that help participants develop familiarity with providing care in low-resource settings—for example, providing bag-valve-mask ventilation using plastic bottles, creating IV lines using improvised tubing, splinting bone-fracture injuries and triaging dozens of mock victims. Our trainers also conducted sessions on “Stop the Bleed,” a program developed by the American College of Surgeons to teach people how to control severe bleeding in emergency situations. Our instructors showed trainees how to use improvised tourniquets—such as those fashioned from belts and gauze—to stop mock hemorrhages.
As is often the case with training provided by International Medical Corps, the two-weeks program was intended to do more than provide participants with skills, as important as that might be. They were also designed to have a multiplying impact. By training trainers, our team gave participants the knowledge necessary to teach others how to save lives during emergencies in their own communities.
By the final day, the trainees felt ready to make a difference in their community. “It gave me the confidence to effectively respond to emergencies that involve severe bleeding,” says Dr. Aisha Kabir of Muhammad Shuwa Memorial Hospital, Maiduguri. “Pressure, packing and speed—it’s not just treating a wound. It’s saving a life, securing a future.”
ERU Specialist Meaghan Sydlowski says, “The course in Nigeria was fantastic. We certified four new instructors who will conduct traditional training. We donated Stop the Bleed kits, as well as testing materials, enabling participants to conduct further emergency-response training in their communities.”
“I’ll apply and spread this knowledge,” says Dr. Dauda Ali Abubakar, a course trainee and newly certified instructor. “I am going to make an impact in my health facility, outside the facility, in the market—anywhere I find a life-threatening condition. I will make every neighbor a first responder.”
This emergency training is just one of many preparedness programs International Medical Corps has recently conducted worldwide.