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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Economy & Trade

Paraguay firefighters demand state investment to end reliance on donations

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • Senator Eduardo Nakayama proposed allocating about $20 million a year to Paraguay’s national volunteer firefighter service.
  • Firefighters said 95% of their funds come from collections and donations, while equipment often comes from discarded foreign supplies.
  • Their association said the request aimed to strengthen the emergency system and recognize volunteers as public servants, rather than simply provide them with money.

Paraguay’s volunteer firefighters say they should no longer have to finance a national emergency service through collections, donations and roadside appeals.

They cannot continue subsisting on donations from friendly countries or be condemned to keep asking for coins at traffic lights, as if they were beggars.

· Eduardo NakayamaThe senator argued for state funding for Paraguay’s volunteer firefighters.

At a public hearing, Senator Eduardo Nakayama defended a proposal to strengthen and fund the country’s national volunteer firefighter service. The plan would allocate about $20 million a year to rescuers. “They cannot continue subsisting on donations from friendly countries or be condemned to keep asking for coins at traffic lights, as if they were beggars,” Nakayama said.

Captain Oscar Acuña said 95% of the funds managed by firefighters came from collections and donations. Paraguay has about 22,000 volunteer firefighters nationwide, he said, adding that they train and work professionally in emergency services.

Although the Paraguayan state provides those resources, they will always be insufficient because today we firefighters, approximately 22,000 throughout the country, train and work professionally in emergency services.

· Oscar AcuñaThe captain described the scale of the volunteer service and the limits of existing state support.

The firefighters said they wanted the profession to gain recognition and dignity, with volunteers formally acknowledged as public servants. Acuña also said much of their equipment came from foreign institutions. The equipment had been discarded in other countries, but remained useful to Paraguayan firefighters.

We are not here to request money for the firefighters. We are here to strengthen the emergency system that the state firefighters are failing to provide.

· Richard LópezThe association president explained that the proposal concerned the emergency system, not only direct funding.

The association stressed that it was not simply asking for money. National Brigadier Richard López, its president, said the proposal would strengthen an emergency system that volunteer firefighters have been providing in place of the state service. He said they had filled a legal, regulatory and constitutional obligation for five decades, and argued that the government should now invest in civil defense and emergency response for accidents, fires, rescues and contamination incidents.

Now it is time for the government to invest in assisting you, us and everyone who needs help during an adverse event, including accidents, fires, rescues and contamination.

· Richard LópezHe called for government investment in civil defense and emergency response.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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