What a weekend! Our event focused on the mountain canoe rescue and water rescue was absolutely amazing. We have been training with great people and had a lot of fun doing that. On Friday together with Aqua Water School we were in Grodek nad Dunajcem to teach CPR with AED at the public beach. On Saturday with people from AKTK Bystrze we have done incredible things at the mountain canoe training centre Wietrznice.eu. The afternoon have been a great adventure while rafting with  Retendo – Szkoła Kajakarstwa Górskiego i Raftingu on the Dunajec river. Sunday and the Finale in Szczawnica has gathered a lot of passers by and tourists for training of the CPR and AED. Special thanks to co-organizator: Grupa Ratownictwa Specjalnego OSP Nowy Sącz for the great time together.

Here are some pics from Saturday – stay tuned for more or follow as at Facebook.

fot. Paweł Gluza

fot. Paweł Gluza

fot. Paweł Gluza

This weekend the volunteers of the Safe Water Safe Land Foundation are heading south. To be exact – the South of Poland and to one of the most beautiful mountain rivers in our country. Dunajec – which is the name of the river coming direct from the very old Slavian word „water”, is mostly known for its pictoresque river tours in the traditional, wooden rafts.

Yet, as any mountain river it is unpredictable and might be dangerous. It proved itself to be so only last week, when after the heavy rainfall there were bridges and roads closed.

The Safe Water Safe Land foundation wants to make world a safer place. This time we want to show people how to behave during accidents at water. We will be in Gródek nad Dunajcem public beach on Friday the 27/07 to teach CPR and show how AED works and how effective its usage is for the casualties. On Saturday we will be training with AKTK Bystrze on the mountain canoe track http://www.bystrze.org/bystrze/. Sunday the 29th of July the final training will be held in Szczawnica. Join us!

On the 30th of March, 2017 another meeting of the „Safe Water Safe Land” volunteers was held in Warsaw’s social-cafe „Państwo-Miasto”. There were 18 (!) of us, including some two two-years-old, but already well-seasoned travelers-rescuers. Their travels were mostly about bouncing between chairs and under the table J.

At the meeting, we discussed the projects that were in progress and shared experiences of the already realized activities. One of the most important things to discuss was, of course, the next training projects. In the vote, Burma won almost unanimously. A lot of us want to go there and the working group is strong, so Myanmar is at 99% probability

The competitive idea of ​​action in Africa is postponed in time. There were also new ideas for training courses in Cuba and Brazil. In turn, the issue of the Tatra Mountains and the project „Nas obchodzi – We care” has aroused many emotions, but also valuable discussion. It is now known that we must change mountains in order to organise it. A bit pity, but the project will be great and we are not giving up.

we will certainly inform you on our further progress…

On 27 Febuary 2017 the volunteers of our foundation met for the first time this year to discuss both the already implemented projects as well as further plans.

As usually we had a lot of fun. We started by summarizing the previous projects. The volunteers who participated in the Thailand project shared more details about the event, and adventures back in Thailand. Then we had a brainstorm about further plans and ideas what the foundation could do in the next few years. For sure we did not struggle with the lack of ideas. On the contrary, we came up with a number of courageous plans. After all, sky is the limit. Now it’s time to verify them.

It was a very fruitful meeting, also due to the fact that more and more people are joining the foundation. It means more energy, more ideas and more hands on deck! Welcome on board

After today, we are speechless – more than 60 people  participated in our training. There was a lot of practical CPR exercise as well as the first aid competition. The remarkable part was the simulation, which presented how to help the drowning person, without needless words and additional translation. We understood each other without words.

Finally, our hosts thanked us singing. It was absolutely amazing.

It was really energetic and great training at Baan Than Namchai Foundation.

A good and important day for us!

Watch the video here.

Today, apart from the training, we had also opportunity to visit orphanage Home&Life Thailand. We spent some time with young pupils of the foundation and home orphanage. This type of institutions are not financed by the public funds, so they need to fundraise money from the different sources. In order to maintenance the place for children, Home and Life runs a cafe and hydrophobic plantations.

You can see their activities on Fb: https://www.facebook.com/home.and.life

We hope that the afternoon with first aid and rescuers was interesting, inspirational and educational for all participants. Looking at the cheerful smiles of children, we are sure about it. It was worth it! We also had a great time!

Today is the 5th of January and the first day of our project – the most important! This is the real start for Thailand 2017. We are stressed and we cannot hide it! Until the last minute there were preaparations, we have done a general rehearsal, last briefing, and … we will be face to face with a demanding group. We have been working on this for months – really!

First training is in the large Grassroots Human Rights Education & Development (GHRE-FED) foundation in #KhuekKha. Fantastic people that started working first with the victims of the tsunami, leading an orphanage and educational center, and now they are evolving and working with legal and financial assistance to migrant workers, mainly from Burma. This is a very difficult issue here in Thailand that we hope to tell you on another occasion.

We are almost ready for the Thailand project. There has been a lot of work, e-mails, planning and as well expenses for the oncoming trainings. We are going to be in the Khao Lak region between the 4th and 8th of January and then moving to Phuket penninsula for two more days of trainings. We will inform you on Facebook as well as here on the blog about the events and hopefully will be able to post some pictures as well.

Many thanks to Foundation for Education & Development (FED) that was helpful in so many ways with information and tips about the volunteering in Thailand. They are doing a great job since 2007 having been working constantly on helping affected comunities with humanitarian aid, but as well legal assistance and basic healthcare. We hope to be of some assistance to their greater and long-term establised project in this area.

We have been raising money for the project and one of the action aimed at arising awarness about situation in Thailand and other parts of the world where first aid and emergency services are not established was 24hours in hammocks. Short movie relation is posted on our facebook site. Enjoy!:

https://www.facebook.com/fundacjasafe/videos/1824140397843516/