(Rivista Internazionale - December 1996: Charitable Activities of the French Association - 7/7)

Regulatory framework for emergency-aid services
A first-aid organisation has developed alongside the national bodies, under the control of the Civil Defence and operating through volunteers grouped into associations.
Only associations recognised on a national level can provide emergency-aid services in the departments they belong to. There are currently ten national associations approved by the public authorities.

Bukavu. Rwanda/Zaire. The Refugee Camp set up in Nyakavoyo for Rwandese Refugees by the French Hospitalier Works, in conjunction with Malta-Assistence Belge.

Most first-aid volunteers belong to the French Red Cross, the voluntary Fire Brigade and the Civil Defence's national federation. There are another seven smaller associations alongside these three big ones, including the Order of Malta's French Hospitaller Works.

Position of the Order of Malta's French Hospitaller Works
"Succouring" your neighbours, especially when they are in situations of physical difficulty, is one of the order's traditional missions. It was therefore natural for the Hospitaller Works to include a "first-aid" sector in their organisation, recognised by the public authorities in June 1993.
Departmental units had then to be created, equipped with a doctor and at least two teachers. Since these teachers had to be trained, it was also necessary to set up a national team of instructors, the only ones authorised to train the teachers.
Starting with three training centres entrusted to our voluntary instructors, we trained the nucleus of teachers who are responsible for first-aid courses in the 22 departmental units.
It is important for this sector to be well integrated in the Works' general activities.
This obliges us to be selective in choosing the people who will have to manage the first-aid operations in a voluntary service spirit. Parallel to this we are strengthening our existing units, especially in terms of teachers, to train active first-aid people capable of providing the service on public roads.
What does the Malta Works' emergency aid activity consist of? The regulations disciplining first-aid in France are applicable to all the national associations authorised to teach first-aid and staff first-aid posts. From this point of view, the Hospitaller Works are no different from the other associations.
However, they do have two specific features:
– Catholic Church works, implying the commitment of those responsible and the duty to bring our contribution to the big religious events (Holy Father's visits, pilgrimages, etc.).
– Capacity to mobilise medical and paramedical corps (doctors and nurses).
Two levels of teaching are provided:
– Basic training: First-Aid Training Certificate. This type of training is open to everyone and lasts from 12 to 15 hours.
– First-Aid Team Training Certificate, indispensable for staffing first-aid posts on public roads. This type of training is open to those who already possess the First-Aid Training Certificate and lasts 50 hours.

Review of the French Hospitaller Works emergency aid activities Present in 23 departments, in 1995 the first-aid staff of the Order of Malta's French Hospitaller Works trained 1400 people using 77 voluntary teachers and issued 1300 official certificates.

HUMANITARIAN ACTIONS
Creation of «Malte Espoir»
Created in 1992 as a continuation of first-aid teaching, «Malte Espoir» has the objective of grouping together and completing the departmental first-aid structures in the case of national disasters.
Malte Espoir (Rapid Intervention Specialised Operational Team) is made up of first-aid staff from the various departments, with logistics specialists, doctors and nurses, indispensable for guaranteeing an effective emergency mission.
All the necessary material has been purchased, including tents for a total area of 700 square metres, emergency medicines and various materials.
They are all packed ready to leave as soon as an emergency intervention is required. These materials are stored in a logistic centre near Nimes (Gard). The fact that this centre has airports, motorways and major stations and ports close at hand means that the material requested can be rapidly sent to the intervention sites.
The first great disaster in which Malte ESPOIR took part was that caused by the floods in Vaison la Romaine (Vaucluse) in 1993. Malte ESPOIR was also present during the Holy Father's visit to France in September 1996, as well as the great annual pilgrimages of Paris-Chartres.
Since some of the other Order of Malta's national associations have also created emergency structures (MALTESER), it was decided to group them together. This increased their effectiveness although each association kept its own responsibility of action.
This body came into being in 1994 under the name of ECOM (Emergency Corps of the Order of Malta). ECOM currently groups the emergency structures of the German, Austrian, Belgian, French, Italian, Irish, Netherlands and Swiss Associations.
ECOM's first big intervention started in July 1994 during the dramatic events in RWANDA to bring help to the refugees in the BUKAVU area (Zaire).
This assistance lasted eight months, ending in March 1995. Over 50 French, German, Belgian, Irish and Italian volunteers worked to set up and manage three refugee camps and a field hospital, caring for over 15,000 people.
More recently, ECOM has sent an exploratory team to Zaire to follow events (November 1996), and is ready to start a new operation if necessary.

Paris. First-Aid lesson held by instructors of the French Hospitaller Works at the "Ambulanciers" school.

"AMBULANCIERS" SCHOOL
Created over 20 years ago by Bailiff Géraud Michel de Pierredon, the "ambulanciers" school has trained around a quarter of the French staff. Serving "Our Lords the Sick", the Order of Malta's French Hospitaller Works see this work as an expression of their charitable mission.
The French Hospitaller Works are renowned for their training activities in the health, hospital and ambulance corps sectors. It is also an opportunity to publicise these activities and receive voluntary service from the people they have trained for various charitable or humanitarian actions.
The school's headquarters is in Paris 15ème (3 bis rue Alexis Carrel) and it has four training centres in Paris, Brest, Bordeaux and Toulon. Each centre has two instructors, assisted by 35 people, doctors and ambulance staff. These training structures accept 42 students per session, three times a year. The training lasts three months with an examination for a statutory certificate: the "Certificat de Capacité d'Ambulancier".
Approved by the Ministry of Health, public authorities pay for selected students' training.
Twenty percent of students pay for their own training at a lower cost because they have scholarships from the Malta bodies, which provide 1.5 million francs of the school's budget,

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