Rhizobia Health Collective

The Rhizobia Health Collective (formerly the Seattle Street Medics) is pleased to present a 20-hour Street Medic training! The training will be held from August 10th to August 12th (friday evening 5pm-9pm, sat/sun 9am-6:30pm) in an accessible location near downtown Seattle. Location will be disclosed once you have registered.

Pre-registration is required for this.

There are some things you will need to know about this training!

First of all, do not show up if you are a cop or a journalist!

Second, there will be a cap of 20 attendees for this training. We are asking folks to reply to seattlemedics@gmail.com and put “street medic training” in the subject line to begin the registration process.

Third, we will be requesting a $20 donation to cover the cost of supplies and to help pay for the location. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Fourth, during this training, we will be both inside and outside, and teaching a lot of hands-on interventions, so folks will need to bring clothing appropriate for both inside and outside environments.

Five, this training does not provide any certification, just skills! Information about low-cost CPR certification here.

Six, please be as scent free as possible. Here is a link to some more info about the advantages and courteousness of scent free space.

Our trainings are open to people of any skill level; we encourage healthcare providers to attend our trainings as strongly as we do people with no first aid background. The training is holistic, focusing on preparation, actions and aftercare. Participants leave with useful tools whether they plan on being a medic at every major summit protest or if they simply want basic first aid knowledge for their neighborhood. The schedule is intensive, with one evening session and two long days that include hands-on practices and realistic scenarios. We strive to make our trainings accessible, safe and supportive for all people and will work with you beforehand to make sure that your needs are met.

Our training includes:

the why’s, what’s, how’s and ethics of street medicking
action preparedness
patient assessment, basic first aid skills and life-saving techniques
when to call 911 and how to interact with Emergency Medical Services
police violence and chemical weapons
packing your first aid kit
and much more!

For more information about being a street medic, please check out these links:

Street Medic Wiki
Orientation to Street Medicking for Medical Providers

The Seattle Street Medics are pleased to present an 8 hour May Day Affinity Group Medic training! The training will be held on April 28th from 9am-6pm. The location will be at the Wildcat, 1105 23rd avenue, seattle, wa 98108. We have tons to cover in this training and so that means we will be starting exactly at 9am! Be on time! 9am on a saturday can be a rough morning, but it will be worth it!

There are some things you will need to know about this training:

First of all, do not show up if you are a cop or a journalist!

Second, there will be a cap of 20 attendees for this training. We are asking folks to reply to seattlemedic@gmail.com and put “mayday training” in the subject line to RSVP. We will create a wait list, in case folks decide not to do the training. please keep in contact with us about attendance, so folks who want this training can be trained! Because this is a one day, 8 hour training, it will be a pot luck style, bring your own lunch type of deal. Please bring enough to share with other folks, and please make sure to plan accordingly if you have any food allergies/sensitivities.

Third, we will be requesting a $10 donation to cover the cost of supplies and to split with the Wildcat for letting us use the space. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Fourth, during this training, we will be both inside and outside, and teaching a lot of hands-on interventions, so folks will need to bring clothing appropriate for both inside and outside environments. We will also be teaching eye flushes, so folks will need to bring rain-gear type clothing that will keep you dry if you are squirted with water (with your consent, of course!). Since we will be teaching eye flushes, folks will need to bring an unopened bottle of water with a squirt top, that has never been in anyone’s mouth!

Five, please be as scent free as possible. Here is a link to some more info about the advantages and courteousness of scent free space: http://www.national-toxic-encephalopathy-foundation.org/fragrance-free-policies/.

We look forward to seeing you all on April 28th!

We are excited about the wave of occupations that are sweeping the country. In particular, we are glad to see that people are occupying spaces here in Seattle and that a team of independent medical volunteers have formed at Occupy Seattle. We have provided some support to them in the form of training and resources. If you are interested in plugging into the Occupy Seattle medical team, find the first aid tent at SCCC and ask how you can help. They would certainly be appreciative. Alternately, you could carry a basic first aid kit with you and be prepared to help your friends.

According to our contact at Occupy Seattle, the folks who you’ll want to talk to are…

Dr Brenda – First Aid Coordinator
occupyseattlestreetmedics@gmail.com
509-429-3383

Nurse Mike is the other medical coordinator
678-988-1039

Last month, one of our collective members spent some time in the desert volunteering with No More Deaths. Below is a brief report on how things went.

After spending a day at camp going over how to use the maps and GPS units and getting oriented to No More Deaths policies and procedures we were ready to head out.

Our first day out on patrol we drove for an hour or so south of camp into the Coronado National Forest. We came across Border Patrol arresting 3 people. After parking the truck, we walked over and discovered a couple of plainclothes BP agents with their guns trained on the folks they were arresting while they were signing paperwork waiving their right to a deportation hearing. After giving the folks being arrested food and water and offering medical care, we stuck around until they were loaded into the G4S transport van. While we were waiting we learned that all three of them were between the ages of 15 and 17. We also overheard BP talking about having apprehended 5 more people who were part of the same group. We drove a bit down the road and came across the rest of the group. BP had handcuffed them to each other and were forcing them to hike down the mountain to the waiting van. Again, we offered them food, water, and medical care. This time, BP told us not to bother with the food because they were going to be spoiled in detention and fed Burger King. Inexplicably, they also said that there would be chicken salad for the vegetarians. They were also openly mocking the people they arrested and talking about how much fun they were having.

Later that day, we passed by one of the failed pieces of the electronic border fence. These towers have an assortment of high tech surveillance equipment designed to detect people crossing the border and alert nearby BP agents to their presence. They don’t really work and the program was recently determined to be a failure.

We also passed by some of the low tech tools that BP uses.

These are drug behind their trucks to clear all of the tracks off of the dirt roads, making it easier to tell if there has been recent foot traffic.

The next few days were significantly more sedate. Other patrols found water bottles that had been slashed by BP. Their official policy is that they have to dump the water and carry the jugs back to their trucks. In practice they often just slash them.

We did a lot of hiking, combining food and water drops with new trail exploration and mapping. These hikes also gave us plenty of time to talk about politics and get to know each other. I spent a lot of time talking about what it meant to approach this work from the perspective of solidarity instead of humanitarian aid and how my anarchist politics motivate me to offer assistance to people who are crossing the border.

The last day out we hiked to Josseline’s shrine.

This shrine marks the spot where a No More Deaths volunteer found the body of Josseline after she had been missing for a couple of weeks. She was hiking with her 10 year old brother trying to meet their mother in L.A. (she was 14) when she became to ill to continue. She told her brother to keep going, which he eventually did. After successfully reaching their mother he was able to notify people about her death. A search party went out, but to no avail. It was an unrelated volunteer out exploring who found her remains.

This story really drove home the senselessness of border policy and enforcement and was certainly a turning point in how I view the region and the work that is being done there.

We’ve been on hiatus for the past few months as some of us were
finishing up with nursing school and the rest of us were attending to
the banality of everyday life. We are excited for the new energy that
the conclusion of school and the long awaited summer weather has
brought. Though we haven’t been updating our website, we haven’t been
completely inactive. We were present at the 15th annual Dead Baby
Downhill where we set-up a first aid tent and treated the inevitable
road rash that comes from racing bikes. One of us went to T.W.A.C.
and presented our first aid and self care for cyclists workshop. It
was well received and we are all looking forward to improving upon it
and presenting it here in Seattle. We have also felt the effects of
the most recent round of police repression directed towards the
radical community here in Seattle.