Red Cross Blogs

A peer what?

By Chris Jefferies
July 26, 2009 at 6:10 pm

Explaining the concept of ‘peer education’ to people can be difficult at first! Maybe it’s the word, I’m not quite sure. My standard answer is “young people teaching other young people lifesaving skills”. This is definitely the heart of the idea, young people engaging with other young people.

However, I don’t think that this simple explanation does justice to the tireless work of British Red Cross peer educators throughout the UK.

At the risk of sounding ‘ageist’, I think it’s a fact that young people find it easier to relate to someone in their own age group. Peer educators can run sessions where they can talk about issues that we may face. For example, knowing how to put a friend in the recovery position after a heavy night out can safe their life.

There have been some amazing success stories. Fifteen-year-old Mitchell Holmes saved his dad’s life by performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) until the ambulance arrived.

Likewise, peer educators can play a huge role in sexual health and HIV/AIDS awareness sessions. Once again, these are issues that we face and peer educators are not afraid to talk about! In my area, our peer educators involved in the ABC campaign (Awareness, Be safe, Condoms) reached nearly 12,000 young people engaging them about HIV/AIDS and sexual health. Impressive stuff.

I think peer education is a fantastic attribute of the Red Cross. Interested? Then get involved!

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Tags: ABC, AIDS, ambulance, cpr, FACE, HIV, peer education, Peer Educators, People, recovery position, red cross, resuscitation, run, teaching, UK, UN, war, young people

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 26th, 2009 at 6:10 pm and is filed under First aid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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