This is, for the majority, their first official school diploma. 180 CM2 students from public and private elementary schools in Biarritz received this Thursday, June 9, on the Grande Plage a first aid certificate. the PSC1, official level 1 civic prevention and relief certificatedelivered from the hands of the mayor, Maide Arostéguy under the eyes of elected officials, teachers, but also lifeguards and members of the Samu.
This is the result of the Child and the Ocean, a Biarritz educational project launched in 2008, which aims to train the youngest to act in contact with the ocean, but also to make them full-fledged rescuers. Because, according to an estimate by the Academy of Medicine, only 30% of French people have been trained in first aid gestures. A considerable delay, compared to countries like Germany or Norway, where 95% of the population has been educated in these gestures.
They are between 10 and 12 years old, and come from Sévigné, Jules-Ferry, Paul-Bert, Victor-Duruy, Braou, Reptou and Thermes Salins. And since the preparatory course, they follow the training modules of the device. Removing danger, calling 18, reacting in the event of drowning, suffocation, discomfort, cardiac arrest… for four years, the children gradually learned the basics of first aid. For a double objective, since the project was launched in 2008: make them the rescuers of tomorrow for our beaches, and educate them in civics through first aid gestures.
A project that costs the City of Biarritz 50,000 euros each year to educate young people in its schools in first aid.
– Stephane Garcia