World First Aid Day: 22 Teams Gather at Kalemegdan

What do you do when someone collapses and help is far away? The answer is simple: first aid in the first five to ten minutes, before the ambulance arrives. That is exactly what children from across Serbia practiced today at Kalemegdan, marking World First Aid Day.

World First Aid Day falls on the second Saturday of September every year, and in 2026 that lands on September 12. To mark the occasion, the Red Cross of Serbia organized a national first aid review for its youngest volunteers, known as petlici (the Red Cross’s junior cadets), at the Fisherman’s Fountain on Kalemegdan. The event was scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Tanjug reported by 12:05 p.m. that the review was already underway.

Exactly how many children took part, and where they came from, is a detail the two outlets do not fully agree on. Tanjug reported that 22 teams of the Red Cross took part, made up of younger schoolchildren from municipalities and towns across Serbia. Telegraf, on the other hand, wrote that the kids came from 22 cities in Serbia. The number 22 shows up in both reports, but each outlet attaches it to something different: one to the number of teams, the other to the number of cities.

The review brought together children from first to fourth grade of elementary school. The Road Traffic Safety Agency also set up a course on Kalemegdan with children’s bicycles and traffic signs, where the kids learned the rules of the road. Through workshops and quizzes, they also covered first aid basics, along with safe behavior at swimming spots and on boats. Across a series of hands on tasks, they showed off their knowledge, skill, resourcefulness and teamwork.

Why Is This Year’s Theme Migration?

This year’s World First Aid Day campaign focuses on first aid in the context of migration. That covers situations where people, while traveling, in transit, or settling into a new environment, run into injuries, sudden health problems or other life threatening circumstances, without help always being easy to reach.

Bojana Banjevic, coordinator of the Red Cross of Serbia’s Training Center, explained on the “Jutro je” program on Radio Belgrade’s First Program why this group is the most vulnerable of all.

“Migrants are an at risk category because help is harder for them to reach, and they deal with long journeys, exhaustion and mental strain,” Banjevic said.

According to her, people in transit most often suffer limb injuries from prolonged walking, along with exhaustion that can lead to collapse. The biggest obstacles to helping them are language and cultural differences, since people from different backgrounds relate differently to authority, gender and physical touch. When someone does not want physical contact, help is given by explaining how the person can treat themselves, or by handing the supplies to whoever is accompanying them, along with instructions.

What to Do While You Wait for the Ambulance

Here are the basic steps the Red Cross advises, no matter who you are helping:

• assess safety, both your own and the person you are helping, before you approach
• do not rely on assumptions, check the person’s actual condition
• use short, clear words and gestures if there is a language barrier
• call the ambulance at 194 if you are unsure what to do next, operators will walk you through it step by step

How Often Should You Refresh Your Skills

The Red Cross recommends refreshing first aid knowledge at least once a year. Banjevic put it simply.

“Learn first aid, because life is priceless. Set aside a few hours during the day, at least once a year, to refresh what you know, because it is an investment in something that could save your life tomorrow,” Banjevic said.

If you have school age children, reviews like this one are a good chance to show them that first aid is not some abstract skill from a textbook, but something the kids at Kalemegdan practiced hands on today, resuscitation dummy in hand. And if you are an adult whose last first aid course was back in high school, those five to ten minutes of difference might depend on exactly what you know, not on someone else’s.