A Day In The Life Of A Lifeguard

“That is why we ordained for the children of Israel that whoever takes a life-unless as a punishment for murder or mischief in the land, it will be as if they killed all of humanity and Whoever saves a life it will be as if they saved all of humanity” Quran (5:32)

Sincerely there is no job or profession that can be taken to be easy and light, that is why gratitude, appreciation and due respect must be accorded to any individual or organization that takes responsibility of sort, for the well-being of the society.

As hundred and thousands of people flock, and gather for holidays, to different beaches of the world, to enjoy and relieve themselves from year stress and job hustles, others use water transport from place to place.

It is important to note that their challenges that can always be met in such places and beaches, I.e drowning, boat or ship capsizing, animal attacks like sharks and so forth and so on.

Credit must be given to lifeguard personnel, those who sacrifice their live hood for the well-being of the others.

These people have no holidays, no salary for their contribution, but may be a nominal fee to meet some basic human needs, like buying food and paying rent.

If an accident occurs on the ocean or lake, these lifeguards have to ensure that, they do all what it takes to rescue the victims first, regardless of who they are in terms of color, nationality or status.

While being interviewed by the national broadcaster (S.A.B.C News channel) reporter, one lifeguard specialist based on south Africa’s coast line of Durban called Bandile, took us through the challenges they face to make sure that life is saved.

A Life guard person must be active, observant and always fit to face the challenges at the sea.

‘It is a God’s call, therefore it involves total sacrifice’, Bandile reiterates after demonstrating the saving procedures required to rescue someone who is in trouble.

According to Bandile you must be fast, to effect the rescue process, otherwise you cannot save a drowning person once you delay.

He listed some of the first Aid techniques used after rescuing a person to safety, and gave CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) which is a first aid Technique that can help save a life during cardia arrest.

Lifeguard professional requires more support from Governments, and other stake holders like private companies and organizations, to work as a corporate investment initiative.

Also, more training centers are needed, to train those who can do pro-bono work to volunteer, because lifeguarding professional, is basically not a money-making project that is aimed at profit maximization.

Any person can visit a beach as a holiday maker, he can be a relative, or someone else you may not know, such a person deserves to be rescued and helped in case of an accident or emergency at the beach.

It is therefore important to equip these lifeguard teams with Better and modern equipments, like life safety jackets, speed boats to make their work easy.

Abubakar Sematimba