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Young firefighters win equipment for their municipalities

Kovacica team tests new equipment

This summer, one-hundred young volunteers from 10 Vojvodina municipalities were trained to help safeguard their communities against fires and ensure the safety of their fellow residents, during a five-day Firefighting Youth Camp, organized by USAID in Kovacica.

The theoretical and practical training was carried out by members of the Ministry of Interior’s Sector for Emergency situations. To reward the efforts of the camp’s best pupils, Michael Pillsbury, Director of USAID’s Preparedness Planning program, recently visited the winning teams from Kovacica, Zitiste, and Zrenjanin, and delivered equipment worth $10,000 for each of their local communities’ volunteer Firefighters associations.

The Youth Camp “Future Vojvodina Firefighters - Kovačica 2009” raised awareness about the importance of volunteerism in disaster prevention and response. It brough together Red Cross members, representatives from the Ministry of Interior and volunteer firefighting associations, along with youth from Bačka Topola, Indjija, Kanjiža, Kovačica, Kula, Novi Kneževac, Sombor, Subotica, Žitište and Zrenjanin.

Firefighters Youth camp in Kovacica

“The Zrenjanin team, comprised of seven girls and three boys, stood out for their creativity, resourcefulness and extraordinary team work exhibited during the camp’s drills and exercises,” said Tibor Guljas, the team’s mentor and added that “some team members have already made use of their newly attainted skills, like Magda Đurka, who helped extinguish field fires in Belo Blato alongside professional firefighters at the end of summer.”

“The youth camp for volunteer firefighters was a unique opportunity for children, between fourteen and eighteen, to learn rudimentary steps of firefighting prevention and protection,” said Vladimir Madjarev, a trainer at the camp, and added that, “Some of the older participants have already shown interest in becoming professional firefighters.” The representative of the Ministry of Interior noted that “Serbia needs an additional 4,000 firefighters, which would supplement the current force of 2850 firefighters, to fully meet the country’s needs and bring Serbia closer to compliance with EU standards of one firefighter per 1,000 citizens”.