General News
7 September, 2022
CWA raises funds for Ambos’
COUNTRY Women’s Association (CWA) groups from across the region have raised a record amount to support Terang paramedics in their life-saving efforts.
COUNTRY Women’s Association (CWA) groups from across the region have raised a record amount to support Terang paramedics in their life-savingefforts.
The CWA South Western Group branches donated a total $1867 to support Terang’s Ambulance Victoria branch in purchasing new training equipment.
The South Western Group is comprised of 11 CWA branches including Mortlake, Terang, Cobden, Panmure, Camperdown, Allansford and Warrnambool.
CWA South Western Group president Bev Byron said the women were proud to support Ambulance Victoria as part of the group’s annual local fundraising project.
“Each year the CWA have a local group project, and this year the Warrnambool branch put in a submission and we all agreed to help out Ambulance Victoria with funds for new equipment,” she said.
“We wanted to help them out because you never know when you’ve got to call them. We also wanted the funds to stay local, not go to Melbourne.
“All of our branches make money in different ways and provide a donation to the group, which are all different amounts as to what they can afford.
“The girls did very well.”
As part of the donation, women from the CWA branches were joined by Ambulance Victoria representatives for a first-aid demonstration at the Terang CWA Hall.
The demonstration was led by Terang ambulance community officer team manager Elizabeth English, Terang ambulance community officer Margaret Staunton and Corangamite paramedic community support officer Chris Stewart from Timboon.
Around 40 members of the community, highlighted by Terang CWA members, were in attendance at the presentation to learn vital information on heart safety and stroke symptoms.
The presentation included lessons on how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and how to use an automated external defibrillator (AED).
“The women were so interested, asking so many questions and learning so much during the demonstration that it went on for about an hour,” Ms Byron said.
“I think it’s important people know about these things.”
Participants also learnt the importance of maintaining medication documentation, learning the signs and symptoms of stroke and an overview of where AEDs are located in Terang.
Each of the participants was also given an emergency medical information booklet, helping to record up-to-date medical information for paramedics in the event of a medical incident.
Ambulance Victoria Terang and Camperdown acting team manager Mel Primrose thanked the members of the CWA branches for their generosity.
“The generous donation from the CWA groups is greatly appreciated and will go towards upgrading our training equipment,” she said.
“The presentation was a great chance to engage with our local community and reinforces the role the ambulance community officers have within our branch.
“This donation is a great example of small communities supporting and caring foreach other.”