.
Search
Email this articleE-mail this story  Discuss this articleWrite letter to editor  Discuss this articleOrder a classified ad
NNSL Photo

Community Emergency Response Team coordinator Tony Clarke spent last Sunday practising his rope rescue work on Twin Pine Hill. - Erin Fletcher/NNSL photo

Two to help in Peru

Protecting doctors part of mission

Erin Fletcher
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 28/03) - Yellowknife's new Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) will deploy on their first international mission in May.

Team coordinator Tony Clarke and Yellowknife firefighter Gerda Groothuizen will be joining the Peruvian American Medical Aid Society to help doctors with their volunteer efforts in Abancay Peru, which is located close to Cuzco in central Peru.

They will spend two weeks helping doctors provide free medical clinics, protecting doctors as they travel through the mountainous regions and educating residents about search and rescue techniques.

"Very few Canadians have this kind of international disaster experience," said Clarke, adding there are only four other Canadian CERT groups in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

"In this type of experience we learn 1,000 lessons and bring them back."

Yellowknife's CERT started two months ago. The nine-member team has been training in ground search and rescue, rope rescue, radio communications and emergency preparedness. Unlike the Yellowknife Search and Rescue, CERT aims to provide international disaster assistance.

Clarke, who's lived in Yellowknife for more than three years, went to Peru last year to do similar work. This will be his sixth international mission but his first non-disaster one.

This will be Groothuizen's first international relief mission.

They are responsible for providing their own gear but the airfare and accommodations are donated. Clarke and Groothuizen should be leaving for their 14-day mission on May 17.