The US Embassy in Dhaka provided emergency first-aid training to a fresh batch of 28 police officers of Bangladesh through a four-day ‘Medical First Responder Seminar (MFRS)’.
Officers from the Bangladesh Metropolitan Police, Industrial Police, Armed Police Battalion, Highway Police, Criminal Investigation Department, and instructors from various Bangladesh Police Academies participated in the seminar ended on Wednesday, the embassy said.
Participants took part in hands-on practical exercises and each received an emergency first-aid kit with medical supplies sourced from Bangladesh.
In addition to strengthening the capacity of local first responders from Bangladesh agencies to respond to emergency and crisis situations, these seminars highlight US commitment to Bangladesh’s national security and reflect the important security relationship between the US and Bangladesh.
During this week’s seminar, graduates of previous MFRS courses, Mehedi Hassan and Shohagh Mia, helped conduct the seminar as part of a ‘train the trainer’ initiative aimed at increasing Bangladesh security services’ capacity to train and equip their own personnel.
Mehedi, a 2016 MFRS participant, is a basic training instructor for the Bangladesh Police Academy and has been an assistant instructor for eight previous seminars. Shohagh, a 2019 graduate, works for the Training and Sports Department at the Police Headquarters in Dhaka.
Since the start of the programme in 2014, more than 600 first responders from across Bangladesh have participated in the programme.
In 2019 alone, the Embassy conducted eight seminars in four of Bangladesh’s eight administrative divisions, training over 200 Bangladeshi responders from the Bangladesh Police, Bangladesh Coast Guard, Bangladesh Fire and Civil Defense, and Border Guards Bangladesh.
The Medical First Responder Seminar is one of the many initiatives of the US government to promote greater cooperation, dialogue, and mutual understanding between Bangladesh and the United States, and a strong partnership to help ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
