Red Cross Society of Seychelles’ award ceremony |14 May 2018
Heroes honoured
Six individuals who risked their lives to save the lives of others have been awarded Medals of Bravery by the Red Cross Society of Seychelles in a ceremony at Eden Bleu on Friday evening.
Peter Onezia, Kenneth Marcel, Nicolas Barra, Michel Nalletamby, Alain Bistoquet and Ronny Laurette who unfortunately passed away during his life-saving act, were honoured and presented with their medals during the award ceremony organised to coincide with World Red Cross Red Crescent Day which was celebrated on May 8.
Praslinois François Quatre was awarded for being the best Red Cross Society of Seychelles (RCSS) volunteer for last year.
The theme for this year’s World Red Cross Red Crescent Day commemoration is ‘Smile’ and it was with a smile on their face that the brave heroes took their medals from the president of RCSS, Kisnan Tamatave.
Ronny Laurette, who lost his life after saving six children in rough seas at Anse Marie Laure, Bel Ombre, has been awarded the medal of bravery posthumously.
His companion Pearl Nalletamby collected his bravery medal on his behalf and said she will keep it as a souvenir of his great act of bravery.
The audience at the event observed one minute’s silence in his honour.
“I feel honoured to receive the recognition medal on his behalf but people may not know that Ronny was a hero all along in his life. It is not the first time that Ronny had risk his life to save others in different instances and recently in March this year before the incident at Anse Marie Laure, he, along with one of my nephews, saved the life of a female tourist who was drowning at Mare Aux Cochons. For me, he was living his life as a hero prior to being recognised today,” said Ms Nalletamby who noted that Ronny who was a carpenter by profession, was a fanatic of the sea and was a very good swimmer and diver.
Michel Nalletamby and Alain Bistoquet are the two other persons who joined Ronny in the act of bravery to save the six children from drowning that day.
Peter Onezia, who works at Eden Bleu Hotel, saved the life of a male client who was having a heart attack last year. Onezia was delivering luggage when the client who was clutching his chess called him and said he was dying. Having just followed a First Aid session two week before, Onezia said he applied what he had learned on the client to stabilise his blood circulation and quickly after called 151 for emergency assistance.
“I always recall the incident thinking that I saved his life and I cannot explain the feeling of joy I feel to have done that as the client told me himself I saved him. Even though I’ve learned that he cannot work for the time being but the good thing is he is still alive and enjoying life,” said Onezia.
The two other bravery acts were by Kenneth Marcel who saved the life of a child through CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) at Persévérance and Nicolas Barra who saved two women and three men who were in distress at sea at Anse Forbans after their canoes capsized in rough seas.
Medals of bravery are awarded to individuals who save the lives of others outside of their working scope.
Volunteer François Quatre has been working as a volunteer with RCSS since 1997. He said as he was always doing voluntary works at any given opportunity, he was approached by a friend to join the RCSS and ever since he has loved his association with the RCSS.
“I call on others to join RCSS because apart from learning First Aid you can learn lots of other things such as radio communication,” he pointed out.
It was the honorary president of RCSS, Chrystold Chetty who presented Mr Quatre with his award.
People who followed a Psychological First Aid course also received their certificates while staff members of the RCSS secretariat were presented with tokens of appreciation for their hard work.
Addressing the gathering of volunteers, RCSS staff, partners and other invitees, Mr Tamatave commended the effort made by everybody and launched an appeal for more volunteers to join the RCSS. He also condemned and made an appeal to members of the public to be more responsible, to respect human dignity by refraining from posting photos of victims involved in accidents or others on the social media.
The RCSS has around 100 members and operates from its main office in Providence, Mahe and a branch on Praslin for the inner islands. Mr Tamatave noted that more will be done to empower the community on how to help themselves and others while they wait for medical assistance.
The ceremony ended with RCSS volunteers cutting a cake to celebrate the event which was followed by entertainment.
