The members of the Foca Station of the Republika Srpska Speleo Rescue Service are hired as volunteers but are always on standby and ready to help the injured, and for that reason are the winners of one of the annual volunteerism awards, said Milos Jakic, head of the Civil Protection Service.
Jakic pointed out that during this year they had more interventions, from searching for drowning people to rescuing tourists in Sutjeska National Park.
He stated that this volunteer unit specializes not only in rescuing from caves, pits and other cracks in Earth but also from all inaccessible terrains.
“The last action we had was to search the water at night and retrieve the body of our fellow citizen. Before that, we had a successful action of rescuing a Belgian tourist lost in Zelengora, then retrieving the body of a fellow citizen who jumped from the bridge, as well as searching for the missing person. and a search of the terrain in search of the victims of a traffic accident on the Drina coast, “said Jakic.
The Caving and Rescue Service has been operating since 2015 and has about twenty members, including ten active rescuers, while others are engaged as needed, and all are members of the “Ursus speleus” Foca Speleological Society.
Their regular activities, in addition to rescue operations, are going to international rescue exercises.
“We participated in training in Slovenia and in the drill at the Skalarevo Abyss pit at a depth of 911 meters, and after that we were invited to the “Bezdan” exercise in Dubrovnik. At the beginning or half of next year, this cooperation will continue with the exercise in Herceg Novi, ” said Jakic.
He emphasized that the annual award of the Volunteer Service of the Republika Srpska and the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports gives this service a great elan to continue volunteer work that few people want to acknowledge and to help volunteers who devote their time, time and sometimes money.
“Moral support is sometimes paramount, that volunteers feel they are recognized in society because it is not easy when you are on the ground and all day long, as it was in the case of the search and rescue of a Russian woman lost at Maglic when we ended the action at six in the morning and already at seven some had to go to work, ” Jakic said.
At the annual manifestation of the Volunteer Service of Republika Srpska, held on the occasion of International Volunteer Day – December 5, among the organizations that received the award for their special contribution to the development of volunteerism, as well as for saving lives, was the Foča Rescue Service and among the awarded individuals is Jakic.
TST
