In the small Malaysian village of Kampung Tra Disa Lembah Keriang in the northern state of Kedah, more than 100 trained Malaysian Red Crescent Society (MRCS) volunteers gathered on a humid Saturday afternoon to test their readiness to respond to a large-scale disaster. The volunteers had come from all across the nation, from as far away as Sabah and Johor Bahru to demonstrate their skills and to test their abilities.
Local villagers also gathered around the edges of their central football field waiting for the exercise to begin. Some from this small, remote community of simple homes were merely eager to observe the unusual happenings, while others had willingly agreed to play an active part in the disaster exercise that was soon to unfold.
"Getting the community involved in the process was an important part of our planning," said Kaman Osman, who has volunteered with MRCS since 1982 and travelled 12 hours by car to participate in the exercise. "These drills help us show the community what we do and how important it is for them to become involved as volunteers for the future."
Make-up artists spent hours earlier in the day creating extremely realistic looking injuries on children and adults. Local police, the Malaysian fire and rescue department and other public officials worked alongside MRCS preparing a scenario that would challenge all of the participants and inspire in them a sense of what such an event might really be like.
An imaginary plane goes down
At exactly 4pm, with support from the local Malaysian fire and rescue department, a loud explosion and a dark plume of smoke arose from beyond a row of village homes just past the football ground. Immediately, those with mock injuries rushed out from behind the homes, crossed a small road towards the football field and collapsed on the grass or under the trees along its edges.
At the opposite end of the field, hundreds of audience members, including Her Royal Highness Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz, who serves as the chair of MRCS Kedah Branch, sat beneath tents, watching and listeing as an announcer described what was happening. "A plane has just crashed," he said, "with hundreds of passengers on board. Homes have been destroyed and local villagers have been injured." Sirens could immediately be heard, and within moments, fire-fighters, police and more than 100 Red Crescent volunteers were on the scene.
Coordination, triage and first aid
According to Nasir Khan, MRCS disaster manager from Kuala Lumpur, "We were focused on four of our most critical roles: coordination, triage, first aid and the transportation of the injured to hospital." These drills happen once a year in locations throughout Malaysia and, in addition to providing practical learning, they help to forge stronger ties with government and other partners in emergency response.
Tents went up within minutes, mock coordination meetings were held, the injured were seen and triaged by Red Crescent volunteers and trained first-aiders provided immediate support to dress pretend wounds, splint imaginary broken bones and counsel those who acted out their grief with extreme enthusiasm.
Amidst the shouts for help from those who had not yet been treated, MRCS representatives shouted directions through bull-horns and guided volunteers carrying stretchers to the right ambulances. The ambulance drivers then fired up their sirens and sped off down the narrow road into the trees and out of sight.
Learning and reflection
In all, the drill lasted just over one hour, finishing with all of the participants lining up to hear immediate feedback on their performance.
"You did well as a group, particularly our newest volunteers who had only received basic training," said Dr Jothi, volunteer chairman for disaster management at MRCS. “For the future, we can strengthen our coordination with government and partner agencies, but overall, well done,” he continued. While the exercise had only lasted a short time, it was clear that its intensity had taken a toll on those who played roles.
Two hours later, with many MRCS volunteers now back at the camp where they had been sleeping for the previous three nights, both their exhaustion and their enthusiasm were apparent. Some had returned to their simple dormitory style beds for a rest, while others formed circles of chairs under corrugated steel roofs to escape the heavy rain.
Hamzah Hasfa was among those who had travelled farthest to participate in three days of training, in addition to the exercise. "I am from Labuan Federal Territory, next to Sabah in East Malaysia, a long way from here," he said. "This is my first time being a part of something like this and it was great. The training we received, followed by the test we were given, makes it easy for me to bring these skills back to my home community."
Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies around the world are called upon to provide immediate humanitarian support to affected communities following disasters. Exercises like this one help volunteers and partners to be fully prepared before emergencies occur.