In the summer of 2023, Greece was again hit by a season of devastating forest fires. OlamAid responded together with ZWST and its local partner organisation KEAN and initiated a project to strengthen local volunteer relief and firefighting forces.

While acute emergency aid was initially provided through the delivery of special fire protection equipment, capacity-building training is to be conducted until the end of 2024 in order to train the volunteer groups to prevent and fight forest fires. This will be achieved, for example, through firefighting and first aid training as well as by providing the necessary equipment for firefighting. In addition, training courses are carried out in the field of psychosocial support, which addresses how to deal with one’s own psychological stress and that of the affected communities. As part of the project, approx. 200 volunteer firefighters are being trained to carry out essential firefighting operations to protect their regions from forest fires.