3 May

The Foreign Ministry is supporting a project of the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences that aims to help train firefighters and rescue workers in Afghanistan and develop their leadership skills.

Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said that a well-functioning and capable fire and rescue service is extremely important to Afghanistan’s domestic security and stability. “The Afghan fire and rescue service is capable of providing firefighting services on a very limited scale due to a lack of equipment and proper training. By sharing the experiences of Estonian experts, it is possible to significantly speed up developments in this area,” stated the foreign minister.

Paet expressed hope that the given project would grow into long-term and deeper co-operation in the area of skills training between the Estonian and Afghan rescue services.

Within the framework of the project of the Academy of Security Sciences, a training programme is being prepared for firefighters and rescue workers in Afghanistan. The board of Afghanistan’s fire and rescue service will visit Estonia to become acquainted with the functioning of the domestic security situation and rescue services here. Training will be given to 45 Afghan specialists, who will then go on to train firefighters and rescue workers across Afghanistan. In addition, Afghanistan will receive the necessary equipment for fire and rescue training as development aid.

In the 34 provinces of Afghanistan the fire and rescue board functions as a separate branch of the provincial police. Every province has at least one fire and rescue crew. In the country as a whole there is a total of 46 crews made up of almost 1500 people. Every crew has at least two modern rescue vehicles, which have generally been received through development aid. However, the rescue vehicles are poorly equipped, which does not allow for effective firefighting and rescue operations.

The Foreign Ministry is supporting the project with 79 975 euros allocated from its development co-operation budget.