A panel discussion-cum-stimulation exercise

Clad in purple Kurta and a matching Dopatta wrapped around her neck, Annie Resusci appeared to be gasping for oxygen while lying flat on a table placed in front of US and Pakistani flags in a multipurpose room here at the US Consulate. The "thousand dollars" dummy, as Nurse Judy Helmie estimated its cost, however, had dozens of keen schoolgirls around to simulate saving her life in the light of community policing tips given to them by Lieutenant Adeel Rana and Detective Elvis Vukelj.
According to Cultural Attaché Griffin Rozell, the duo stands "finest" among some 1200 Muslim cops working at New York Police Department (NYPD) to help immigrants from Asia and Eastern Europe integrate into the world's most diverse American society. Sunday saw US Consulate holding a panel-discussion-cum-simulation exercise with Rana and Vukelj providing some very valuable safety tips to 50 female students from various city schools under the Access English-language Micro-scholarship program.
The two cops, hailing respectively from Pakistan (Faisalabad) and former Yugoslavia, were assisted by Judy and Vice Counsel Angela Wyse who trained the students on first aid in case of an emergency. While Angela taught the students how to help a bleeding wounded person, Judy simulated the making of a splint using a dopatta and stick, a magazine, a roll of newspapers or anything stiff available.
"Pump, pump, pump, pump... to staying alive," sang the 40-year-old Vukelj while compressing, twice a second, the chest of Annie, as an identity card on the dummy's chest identified her, to demonstrate Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). Asked Attaché Rozell told Business Recorder that the ID card around the dummy's neck was to make the exercise "extra realistic".
"We play this famous song while training at NYPD... training is very instinctive you know," explained Detective Vukelj, who thinks of Pakistan and its people as "wonderful". Though spokesman Brian Asmus sees Sunday's safety event for schoolgirls not linked to any "specific" incident, Lieutenant Rana finds the given tips helpful for the students to deal with an emergency like last year's December 16 terror attack on Peshawar's Army Public School (APS).
"It was a horrific attack," he recalled telling the girls how to find safest of the rooms in their schools and block the entry of "terrorists" therein by using furniture. As the program concluded, Ayesha Yaqoob, a Grade 8 student from Dhaka Secondary School Karimabad, said to have "learnt how to save lives". "Don't panic, stay calm and absorb the pressure in time of an emergency," recalled the 13-year-old who wants to become an astronaut in future.
Urooj Rafiq of Kutyana Memon Academy stressed the need for organising more such training sessions for the students. "Every student should be imparted this training because we knew nothing about what we have been taught today," said Urooj, 16, a metric student wearing a scarf. On sidelines, Rana said presently some 12-15 students of APS were visiting the United States apparently on a rehabilitation trip. "We took them all over New York," he said.
Despite increasing incidents of religio-culturally-motivated hate crimes in the west, Rana said Muslims in the US were feeling more protected. "We have close to 1200 Muslim officers at NYPD, few of them girls. Two of them wear hijabs while patrolling," said the cop, sporting a dozen medals on his bluecolor uniform as a sign of accomplishments in service.
Waheed Akhtar was the first Pakistani New Yorker who was promoted at NYPD to the rank of a captain last Friday, said Rana, who also is the president of Muslim Officers Society (MOS) which educates foreign immigrants on their rights in the US. "Hate crime here is taken as a very serious offence," Vukelj told this scribe. The detective claimed that the Muslim girls wearing a scarf had nothing to worry about. "I have no idea what's happening in Europe, but we don't have that problem in New York," he said.
In case of an incident, the policeman said, a specialised unit, comprising officers fully aware of people's "cultural sensitivities", is swiftly mobilised to thoroughly investigate the matter. "We want to share American culture and pass along valuable life skills as part of the program's (Access) enrichment activities," said Rozell in a statement issued by the Consulate.