If you are interested in supporting the work of EPIDRASIS, your assistance will be extremely valuable and appreciated! 

Help us acquire our first vehicle for Search and Rescue, First-Aid in remote areas and Firefighting purposes, and contribute to our cause for a safer future!

EPIDRASIS – A few words about Us

The Humanitarian Crisis Management Team “EPIDRASIS” was established in June 2022 in Heraklion, Crete, Greece by volunteers with enthusiasm and dedication to gaining knowledge and experience, aiming for meaningful participation in daily and emergency humanitarian issues in the community.

Today, EPIDRASIS is part of the Greek Civil Protection, counts 90 members, 55 of whom are uniformed volunteers.

Key Areas of Action

The Search and Rescue Team is our main area of development, with training and action on various fields such as:

- Technical Rescue

- Swift Water Rescue – Rescue 3 First Responders School

- Non-swimming Rescue from Water

- Missing Person research

- Wildfire Fighting and Forest Protection

The Medical Team specializes in First Aid, offering medical coverage for events and activities both in urban and rural areas. Additionally, we organize and participate in First Aid and Automated External Defibrillator training for citizens, associations, and organizations.

Needs for Volunteer Action in Crete

The island of Crete, with a population of approximately 623,000 permanent residents and around 5,000,000 visitors every summer, has many characteristics that create increased needs for volunteer action in the context of both prevention and emergency response.

> During the fire season, the needs for forest protection and firefighting on our island are particularly high, making our training and the participation of volunteers in patrols and forest fire suppression extremely useful.

> Flooding is another major risk, as evidenced by recent examples of floods in the Hersonissos area in 2020 and in Agia Pelagia in 2022, where two lives were lost. Recognizing the belief of science and Civil Protection that similar incidents are likely to recur, 11 of our volunteers have been trained and certified as First Responders in swift water rescue, thus forming a specialized rescue team.

> Crete also experiences significant seismic activity, with the recent peak being the Arkalochori earthquake in 2021, which claimed the life of one person and rendered more than 5,000 homes uninhabitable, with about 160 families still living in temporary housing (containers) and hundreds of others staying away from their village. As a team, we have attended a series of theoretical courses and experiential workshops, as well as earthquake simulation exercises involving search and rescue of missing persons.

> Due to the mountainous nature of Crete, there has been a significant increase in hiking and mountaineering tourism, leading to a higher number of missing person search incidents in the countryside. The lack of organized air rescue in Greece underscores the importance of having volunteers trained in technical rescue, who can assist the Fire Service's operations in locating missing persons, ensuring safe access, and providing first aid. EPIDRASIS volunteers regularly attend training and organize drills to ensure they are fully prepared for such incidents.

For both our effective response to the above emergency situations and our team's daily contribution to First-Aid training and medical coverage, we rely exclusively on volunteering as well as donations and sponsorships from friends, team members, and organizations.

Thank you for taking part to our dream for a safer tomorrow!!