112 Awards Ceremony – 17 April 2013
MEDIA ADVISORY
What is the 112 Awards Ceremony?
The 112 Awards Ceremony is the only pan-European awards ceremony in the emergency services field and it has been organised since 2008 by the European Emergency Number Association (EENA). This year the city of Riga will host the event on the evening of the 17th of April. The 112 Awards Ceremony, which is run in conjunction with the conference, recognises and rewards some of the emergency services and citizens for their outstanding achievements in improving and promoting the European emergency number 112. The awardees’ selection procedure consists of two stages. During the first stage, proposals from all over Europe falling into the different categories are assessed by a panel of 5 independent juries, experts in the emergency services field. Two applications in each category are preselected and the final selection is performed through direct vote by EENA (112 Emergency Services Staff Network and EENA Advisory Board). The 112 Awards Ceremony will be attended by high level political personalities, representatives of EU Institutions, emergency services and solution providers.
About the European Emergency Number Association (EENA) - www.eena.org
EENA, the European Emergency Number Association, is a Brussels-based NGO set up in 1999 dedicated to promoting high-quality emergency services reached by the number 112 throughout the EU. EENA serves as a discussion platform for emergency services, public authorities, decision makers, associations and solution providers in view of improving emergency response in accordance with citizens' requirements. EENA is also promoting the establishment of an efficient system for alerting citizens about imminent or developing emergencies.
The EENA memberships include about 750 emergency services representatives from 43 European countries, 57 solution providers, 9 international associations/organisations as well as 26 Members of the European Parliament.
Table of content:
· More information on the 112 Awards Ceremony - Page 2
· Press Release - Page 3
· List of Awards and Awardees - Page 5
· Awardees Stories - Page 6 to 11
More information on the 112 Awards Ceremony
Venue:
Radisson Blu Hotel Latvija (Omega Room, Hall 2)
Elizabetes St., 55.
Riga, Latvia.
(Google Map)
Date & Time:
17 April 2013 - from 7.00 pm to 11.30 pm
7.00 pm " 8.00 pm Networking Cocktail
8.00 pm " 11.30 pm Gala Dinner & 112 Awards Ceremony
Additional information materials
· You can already find here logos and several information materials
· Official pictures of the event and the videos broadcasted during the Ceremony will be available here on 17 April, right after the Ceremony (midnight).
To attend the event:
If you wish to attend the event, please send an email with your full contact details to Ms. Lavinia Cinca at by 12 April 2013 or call her at +32 (0)2 534 97 89 or +32 (0) 487 38 77 54.
View our proposal of Press Release on Page 3
EMBARGOED UNTIL 18 April 2013
This list of awardees should not be published by the media before 18 April 2013
Country/ Organisation X wins a 112 Award for a safe life
18 April 2013, Riga, Latvia - Country/ Organisation X was handed the Outstanding Y Award last night, during the 112 Awards Ceremony organised by the European Emergency Number Association (EENA). Country X and other awardees walked off with top honours rewarding their commitment to promote and improve the European emergency number 112.
The 112 Awards Ceremony was a night to remember for the participants representing emergency services, international organisations, the European institutions, solution providers. During the Awards Gala Dinner, the attendees raised a glass as sign of gratitude and support to the winners from Croatia, Finland, France, Latvia, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, and Romania.
Insert information about your country’s awardee
“It gives us great pleasure and pride to award the representatives of emergency services and citizens committed to improve the quality and awareness levels of 112 all over Europe. It was a tough competition to judge and the level of applications has been outstanding, but some stars shone more than others. Hopefully the heroes we have met tonight will inspire us all to contribute to an even safer society. Congratulations to all the winners!”, commented Olivier Paul-Morandini, President and Founder of EENA.
And / or
Insert statement of national officials
Held in conjunction with the EU Emergency Services Workshop, the 112 Awards Ceremony 2013 concluded the quest for outstanding initiatives in the field of emergency services and rescue. Applications from all over Europe were submitted in the categories of the competition and a panel of 5 independent experts assessed them before the EENA members gave their final vote.
About the 112 Awards Ceremony
Optional: history of the country/ organisation and 112 Awards (if received any in the past)
The 112 Awards Ceremony, which is run in conjunction with the conference, recognises and rewards some of the emergency services and citizens for their outstanding achievements in improving and promoting the European emergency number 112.
About EENA - www.eena.org
EENA, the European Emergency Number Association, is a Brussels-based NGO set up in 1999 dedicated to promoting high-quality emergency services reached by the number 112 throughout the EU. EENA serves as a discussion platform for emergency services, public authorities, decision makers, associations and solution providers in view of improving emergency response in accordance with citizens' requirements. EENA is also promoting the establishment of an efficient system for alerting citizens about imminent or developing emergencies.
The EENA memberships include about 750 emergency services representatives from 43 European countries, 57 solution providers, 9 international associations/organisations as well as 26 Members of the European Parliament.
Contact details: Insert contact details of your press person
See the 112 Awards Ceremony and official pictures: www.112awards.eu
View the list of Awardees and their stories from page 5
List of Awards and Awardees
EMBARGOED UNTIL 18 April 2013
This list of awardees should not be published by the media before 18 April 2013
EENA is delighted to announce the selected Awardees:
Outstanding Call Taker – Slavomíra Korduliaková, Ministry of Interior, Slovak RepublicContact: Mrs. Marta Fabianová , +421 2 5094 4522,
Outstanding Citizen – Sergey Paramonov, citizen, Latvia
Contact: Mrs. Viktorija Šembele , +371 29468106 ,
Outstanding Citizen – Mateusz Lesniewicz, citizen, Poland
Contact: Mr. Tomasz Stube, +48 609 307 063,
Outstanding eCall Initiative – National Protection and Rescue Directorate, Croatia
Contact: Mrs. Ivana Volović,
Outstanding Education on 112 – Special Telecommunications Service, Romania
Contact: Mr. Adrian Fulea, +40 212022141,
Outstanding Emergency Call Centre – Public Safety Communication Centre(for the Northern Netherlands) , The Netherlands
Contact: Mr. Roel Barkhof, +31 0591 635000 (direct), +31 653420963 (Cellphone), mailto:
Outstanding National 112 System – Emergency Response Centre Administration, Finland
Contact: Mrs. Kirsi Kellokangas, +358 50 361 9885,
Outstanding NG112 Initiative – Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grenoble (CHUG), France
Contact: Mrs. Sylvaine Montagnat Rentier, +33 6 47 34 35 94,
Read the Awardees stories below on pages 6 to 11
Awardees Stories
Outstanding Call-Taker
Recognises a call taker / dispatcher who has contributed to save a life or several lives by handling a particularly tricky call to 112.
The life of a young girl saved thanks to the excellent handling of a highly difficult call to 112 - Ms. Slavomíra Korduliaková, Slovakia
Ms. Slavomíra Korduliaková is a call taker and dispatcher of the emergency regional centre of the Fire and Rescue Department situated in regional the PSAP, Coordinating Centre of Integrated Rescue System, of Žilina city. The emergency call happened in February 2012, when the Kysuca region was experiencing extreme weather conditions - 2 meter-deep snow. A sixteen years old girl was returning from school when the snow storm cut her off the road and made her lose her way home. Cold, soaked, dehydrated and tired, the girl got panicked and started crying. Just in time, realising that her life was highly threatened by frost, she called the emergency number 112 and the heroic performance of the 112 call-taker saved her life.
Ms. Korduliaková handled this emergency call fully professionally despite the difficult conditions. The girl was giving up the fight for her life; she was exhausted and could not go on. Her psychological and physical state made communication with her even more complicated. Ms. Korduliaková maintained continuous contact with the victim knowing that the girl had to keep on moving, as falling asleep would have caused her death. For one hour Ms. Korduliaková provided psychological support to the victim by telephone and kept the girl alive. Beside this, she performed the tasks related to the intervention, rescue and care, she dispatched appropriate resources from the near-by Turzovka fire station, but the rescue action got more complicated due to the fact that the girl didn’t know where she was exactly. Ms. Korduliaková communicated with both the mother of the victim and the mayor to find out the accurate location of the girl. Finally fire-fighters got the good location and found the girl after one hour in a poor condition and transported her immediately to the hospital.
With the personal interest, empathy and psychological support provided to the victim and with the professional approach to the emergency accident response, Ms. Korduliaková really saved the girl’s life.
Outstanding Citizen
Recognises individual(s) who have contributed to save a life or several lives by calling 112 or making sure that 112 was called or/and an emergency rescue involving a call to 112 and an outstanding response from the emergency services.
A bus driver saves lives from a fire - Sergey Paramonov, Latvia
Sergey Paramonov is a bus driver. On the early morning of 21st of December on his route he noticed a large column of smoke. 50 meters from the road he saw a two storied wooden house burning. At that moment there were no other people or fire-fighters.
Sergey reacted quickly – he left his bus in safety, turned on the distress signal and ran towards the fire. „I started shouting, thought that the house is abandoned, but then suddenly a man and a woman jumped out of the building, they were in panic!,” remembers the driver. “I immediately dialled 112 to call the fire-fighters and asked the inhabitants, if there still was anyone else inside. The woman then realized that on the second floor still could be her neighbour!”
“I ran on the other side of the building and saw that a woman was standing by the window!” tells Sergey.
He shouted to tie the sheets together and try to come down but she was in a state of shock. “Is there a ladder or a rope maybe?” asked Sergey to the inhabitants. Sergey got a rope and tried to throw it up several times. At last the woman caught the rope, but she still could not move. “I thought that we would not make it before the fire has spread all over! I tried to keep contact with her all the time, told her to keep close to the window to get air” explains the saver.
Then, luckily they saw the flashing lights of the fire-fighter vehicles that drove up!
They set the fire fighting ladder and rescued the woman. It all lasted not more than ten minutes but for Sergey it seemed like eternity. When he saw that she is in safety, the bus driver hurried back to his bus and drove away.
A few months later Sergey received the award “Hero of the year”.
The little heroe and rescuer - Mateusz Lesniewicz, Poland
Mateusz Lesniewicz from Dlugoleka near Krotoszyn is one of the little heroes honoured during the celebration of National Emergency Number 112 Day which was organized by Wielkopolski Voivodship Office in Poznan. 8-year-old Mateusz saved the life of his grandmother, who fainted. The boy was playing with his brother in the other room when he heard a crash, which alarmed him. When he left the room he saw his grandmother lying on the floor unresponsive to his calls. Mateusz took the phone, called 112 and told what had happened. He asked his brother to stay with his grandmother and he went out on the road to indicate the placeto the ambulance. The history of the little hero enjoyed great echo in the media and the local environment and the boy’s wise response became a great example to followfor his peers.
Outstanding eCall Initiative
The Outstanding eCall Award rewards public authorities that have deployed the pan-European eCall in their country.
Successful eCall pilot implementation and testing, Republic of Croatia
The first standardised eCall in real environment in Croatia took place on 15th March 2012, following the successful implementation of the eCall flag-supporting modifications in one of the Croatian operators’ mobile network (Tele2), and the installation of the eCall-enabled PSAP at the Croatian National Protection and Rescue Directorate’s (NPRD) facilities. The Croatian eCall Pilot partners are: NPRD (national 112 and PSAP operator and Croatian eCall Pilot co-ordinator), Ericsson Nikola Tesla (mobile network and PSAP system manufacturer); Tele2 (mobile network operator) and Croatian Automobile Club (IVS provider). Seamless testing, validation and verification of the standardised in-band modem eCall on the whole territory of the Republic of Croatia with the Tele2 network coverage were achieved due to the joint work of the Croatian partners. During the first phase of the pilot the testing was split into two categories: laboratory and real-environment testing. The laboratory environment for testing, consisting of IVS units, the emulated eCall-enabled mobile network and the eCall enabled PSAP, was established in Q4/2011. After successful completion of the laboratory testing phase, the real eCall environment (in an operational mobile network) has been set up for the eCall performance testing and validation in Q1 2012. Following the Factory acceptance test and the Site acceptance test, the eCall-enabled PSAP has been declared operational at NPRD as the 1st level PSAP, and two out of four 2nd level PSAPs were declared operational at the Fire brigade unit and the Croatian Automobile Club. The eCall-enabled PSAPs are integrated within the existing 112 PSAP system and operators use the eCall-adjusted Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). The training of the PSAP operators was performed to introduce the 112 operators to the new eCall features.