Manitoba Red Crosser helps unite international first aid efforts

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) serves many people around the globe with first aid programming. It ranges from community first aid to psychological first aid and even paramedical health care. The IFRC Global First Aid Reference Centre was created in 2012 as the technical hub for National Societies to collaborate and advance first aid programming throughout the world.

How does such a vast network of National Societies – 192 in total – work together to harmonize and oversee international first aid standards? With the help of Manitoba’s own Karen Brodeur-Trotter, to start.

Karen began her career with the Canadian Red Cross as a First Aid Program Representative over a decade ago, but her journey into first aid began shortly after becoming a mother for the first time in 2000. This life event prompted the realization that her previous work experience in veterinary medicine had prepared her to treat animals with first aid, but not humans. 

“I worked with an animal emergency clinic before, but when I had my first child, I realized I had resuscitated many animals on the operating table in an emergency, but I had no idea how to resuscitate my own infant. That was when I signed up for first aid training.”

Karen’s passion for first aid only grew from there. During her parental leave, she became a First Aid Instructor with a private first aid training business. When asked what prompted the change to move to the Red Cross, Karen expressed a desire to make an even bigger impact.

“I just wanted to give back. I had worked in pharmaceutical sales for many, many years, and I decided when I went back to work, I wanted to feel more like I was contributing to something. The Red Cross was the way to do that.”

And contribute she has. From program representative to program development, Karen’s roles throughout her tenure with the Red Cross have been multifaceted. In June of 2021, she was brought on with the IFRC Global First Aid Reference Centre to support the development of a global first aid policy.

Based out of Paris, France, the Global First Aid Reference Centre strives to make people and communities more resilient using first aid. The centre helps National Societies share knowledge with each other and promote quality first aid education at the global level. To accomplish this mandate, Karen works remotely as a First Aid Officer to support many different international project teams and ensure their voices are heard.

“We had six working groups contribute to a policy group and six working groups contribute to initiatives within their specialty area. My responsibility is to keep those groups moving forward and working collaboratively.”

The new IFRC First Aid Vision 2030 and Policy were unanimously voted on and adopted at the 2022 General Assembly thanks to the collaborative efforts of the project teams behind it. The next step for Karen is to help to operationalize and implement the policy to meet all 192 National Societies needs.

“It is a very ambitious vision for sure. Trying to come up with a vision that met the global needs is a real challenge, but the group members were amazing, and they do amazing work.”

First aid is a key element of responding to the current and future needs of the world. By sharing the basic knowledge and skills to prevent and care for injuries and illness with communities and individuals, first aid is a tool to empower people by giving them a chance to help themselves and others.

Interested in expanding you first aid knowledge and following a similar path as Karen? Consider signing up for a Red Cross first aid course to get started today.