Hi Everyone, my name is Emily Elledge and I am the Communications/Business Development intern for the International team at ICMA. I will be blogging and posting photos periodically to keep you all updated on our international programs.

As a newcomer to ICMA, it has been exciting to learn about each of our current international programs from staff members and consultants who have worked on these projects in DC and overseas. I recently had the opportunity to interview Ricardo Garcia, ICMA’s assessment and training consultant for Paraguay, regarding our program to help improve rescue and fire response in that country. Ricardo is a retired captain from the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department who lent his expertise to Paraguay’s volunteer firefighter organization, Cuerpo de Bomberos Voluntarios del Paraguay (CBVP). I wrote a news article about how he went about his assignment and you can read about it here!

Ricardo told me that he faced very few obstacles while conducting the assessments and training course on incident command. The members of the CBVP had positive attitudes and were eager to learn how to respond more efficiently and effectively in emergency situations. They readily cooperated and willingly provided information requested for the evaluation.

The most difficult challenge Ricardo faced was dealing with Paraguay’s Bicentennial Celebration the weekend before the training course. These days were critical for the preparation and set up required for the course, and it was challenging to keep the attention of the firefighters with celebrations galore to commemorate Paraguay’s independence. In addition, the finals of the national soccer league happened to fall on the weekend of the course. Paraguayans are particularly passionate about soccer, so you can imagine how attentive the firefighters must have been that weekend! However, Ricardo proudly claimed that the training session concluded nicely, and the program was an overall success.

According to Ricardo, “It was really great to get a chance to work again with the CBVP. During my career at Miami Dade Fire Rescue I had the privilege of managing the International Training Program under a grant from USAID/OFDA…I knew quite a few of the participants in the course having worked with them all those years, although I had not been back to Paraguay in over 5 years, it was like being back home again.”

SOUTHCOM has future plans for Paraguay, and hopefully ICMA will have the opportunity to become involved with these exciting projects. We’ll keep you posted!