Blessing Taiwo
As the rainy season moves toward its peak, the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS), Lagos branch in collaboration with the British Red Cross has rolled out more intervention programmes for flood prone areas in the state.
The humanitarian organisation disclosed that four water prone areas in Lagos have received their support in terms of food, finance, supplies and training. It however, added there is a plan to extend the support to five more communities in Lagos who are also exposed to flooding.
This was revealed in an exclusive interview with our correspondent during a two-day first aid training for residents of Agboyi community held at the NRCS Lagos branch office in Yaba.
Oladimeji Ige, the Disaster Management Officer and Training Director of Nigerian Red Cross Society, Lagos branch said a risk assessment in various local government areas were conducted before the selection of the communities.
“We want to build the resilience of the communities concerning floods. Due to financial constraints, we can only support four communities for now. We are expanding already and planning to support additional five communities in Lagos who are also exposed to flooding.
“We have the capacity to spread but there is no fund for that. The ones we have been doing were funded by the British Red Cross. They are currently working with five states— Lagos, Imo, FCT, Bauchi and Delta,” he stated.
Speaking on the interventions in Agboyi land comprising of Agboyi 1, 2 and 3 in Agboyi-Ketu Local Council Development Area of Lagos state, Ige said the Red Cross has been supporting the community for about four years.
“Agboyi community has been prone to flooding for many years. We observed this after we carried out our assessment with other stakeholders like National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA)
“This is a first aid refresher training to renew their knowledge and certificate. They had been trained on first aid before.
“We have had series of interventions with them including search and rescue training where stakeholders also facilitated.
“We also have a team on ‘early warning, early action’ that monitors the water level in the area. They communicate with the community on the water level situation, advising them on what to do and link them with relevant stakeholders— dam operators, ministry of water resources, ministry of physical planning and LASEMA. Some Lagos residents don’t know about LASEMA resettlement center where they can run to.
“Part of our interventions to the community is the cash transfer programme which has been carried out three times. Last year, we supported small businesses and trained them on financial literacy. In December, 180 households were supported financially. Each received N310,000. N60,000 for their family needs and N250,000 to be injected into their businesses. Then, the Red Cross volunteers provided mentorship for them for two months, teaching them on record keeping and financial growth.”
The Disaster Management Officer mentioned that the Red Cross is planning another intervention on food security and livelihood.
His words, “we have had a community town meeting with them about this and they contributed. After the meeting, we called for front desk inputs for three days whereby residents who prefer to give their complaints and suggestions anonymously have the opportunity to. We shared a toll free line with them to get more information.
“Two years ago, we supported them with resilient items like torches, rain boots, rain coats, solar lights, buckets, blankets to help them during flooding. We have also supported them with food items and trained them on hand washing and made hand washing stations for households and businesses.
“Currently, we are training 30 volunteers (10 per community) in the two days training. They are trained on how to respond to emergency before the casualties get to the hospital. Since the community people are the ones witness the incidents first, it is very important to us to train them.”
Francis Shobande, one of the facilitators at the training and the food security and livelihood focal person for the British Red Cross intervention in Agboyi community said the participants are expected to go back to their community to enlighten others and provide help when needed.
“The training is a refresher course on first aid. It is to remind them of those things they have forgotten and abreast of the current standard as far as management of casualties and injuries is concerned.
“The training will enable them to have that skills on how to attend to casualties professionally before moving them to the hospital for medical attention,” the first aid trainer said.
Participants at the training expressed gratitude to the Red Cross family for deeming it fit to continuously empower their community over the years.
Salami Abiola from Agboyi 1 said “the British Red Cross and Lagos Red Cross have done a lot in my community for years. My community received cash transfer, food items as well as business empowerment.
“My community is surrounded by water and the Red Cross trained us on search and rescue skills. This has helped us to know how to attend to water accident to prevent drowning.”
On her part, Funmilayo Adeniran from Agboyi 2 said the refresher course on first aid is very helpful as she had been utilising her previous knowledge on first aid, expressing willingness to do more in her community.
She shared one of her experiences on how she administered first aid to a man who was stabbed during a fight in her community before he was taken to the hospital.
Hamdalat Adeshina from Agboyi 3 said it is her first time participating in the first aid training and glad to have learnt alot especially on recovery position, water level warning signs and rescuing a drowning person.
“The flood comes in a particular period and month in my community. First, we will see a kind of leaf on the water, it is a sign for us and the information will be passed to our leaders who will alert all the community residents. Also, hunters usually see the signs from the water waves and alert the community.
“After seeing these signs, steps are taken to protect lives and properties as we are no longer caught unaware even if it comes at night. The water usually enter most of our houses, so we raise our mattresses with benches or kegs and put our important documents in a bucket and hang it so that water doesn’t get there,” she shared her flood experience.
