Firemen from Namibia train in Vetlanda

For two weeks, three Namibians participate in the Basic Fire Fighter Training Programme at the Vetlanda Rescue Services. The programme is now in its second week, and the visitors are learning everything about the fire engine that is going to be sent to their region. The training programme is a part of the co-operation project between the municipality of Vetlanda and a regional council in Namibia and aims at building capacity for the rescue services in the area.

Fire brigade officer Sven Eriksson says that the visitors are participating in the Basic Fire Fighter Training Programme - the basic training programme for all new firemen in Vetlanda.

The training programme is a part of the co-operation project between the municipality of Vetlanda and the Kavango Regional Council in Namibia. The project is funded by Sida and its purpose is to help in the capacity building of the rescue services in the region around the Kavango River. Emåförbundet is in charge of the communications between the partners.

The three visitors come from three different places in the Kavango region in northern Namibia. John Sinime comes from the most northerly and biggest town, Rundu, a town with 80.000 inhabitants. Oiva Kambinda comes from Nkurenkuru and Kawana Romanys from the little town of Divundu.

- In my town, we do not have a fire brigade, Kawana Romanys says in English.

Divundu and the two other towns are going to participate in a co-operation project for the regional rescue services. The fire engine from Vetlanda will come in handy and the visitors are satisfied with the training.

- We are learning so much, both theory and practise, John Sinime says and smiles.

The visitors have no problems understanding the instructions either.

- It is easy when everybody speaks English, John Sinime says.

The visitors are not likely to take part in any actual turnouts of the fire brigade.

- We have told our visitors that if there should be a major fire, they can come and see how we extinguish it, even if they cannot travel in our fire engines, Sven Eriksson says.

The daytime shift takes care of the training. At the time of our visit, fireman Daniel Lind is showing the visitors the different functions of the fire engine.

The Rescue Services have donated a fire engine to the Kavango Region earlier, so this will be the second fully equipped fire engine sent to Namibia from Vetlanda. Three more Namibians are going to visit Sweden to receive training at a later date, and three representatives of the Vetlanda municipality are going to visit Kavango next winter.