On January 21st, Firefighters Without Borders Canada will deploy a 26 person team to El Salvador as part of our annual deployments working with the Cuerpo de Bomberos de El Salvador. This team is comprised of 14 fire fighters, 2 subject matter experts (Tech Rescue & ICS), a group of 4 recent graduates of the Justice Institute of BC, Fire & Safety Academy who are on a scholarship program in place between FWB Canada and the JIBC, and 4 individuals compiling a documentary on FWB Canada operations.

On March 16th, Firefighters Without Borders Canada will deploy a 16 person team to Thailand to deliver an EMS program in conjunction with the donation of 6 new AED's with AED Tr5ainers and related EMS equipment. This team has 6 fire fighters forming the core with the remaining persons filling a variety of roles. The Thailand 2010 deployment has also been named Noah's' Journey 2010 in honour of Noah Yelizarov, who died tragically in Phuket Thailand in 2004. FWB Canada assisted the family to make a dream of theirs a reality, as they wanted to give back to the country where their son lost his life.

On March 19th, Firefighters Without Borders Canada will see our 2nd deployment to Paraguay take place. A team of 7 fire fighters will once again deliver a wide variety of training topics to the Cuerpo de Bomberos Voluntarios del Paraguay.

On April 9th, 2010 Firefighters Without Borders Canada will deploy an inaugural training program to the Peruvian National Fire Service. A team of 7 fire fighters will travel to Peru and deliver training in a variety of fire-based topics and complete an in-country needs assessment to determine future opportunities between FWB Canada and Peru.

Currently a member of Firefighters Without Borders Canada is in Cuba conducting a thorough needs assessment and communicating with the national fire service regarding possible opportunities for partnerships between FWB Canada and the Cuban fire service. It is anticipated that if all goes well, a deployment to Cuba may take place in late 2010 or early 2011.

The equipment destined for the Kinshasa Fire Department has arrived in country courtesy of our relationship with Rotary International. Currently the boxes of fire fighter PPE are clearing customs and should be delivered to the KFD shortly.

Recently, the first shipment of fire fighter PPE destined for the Belize National Fire Service arrived and was put into service. FWB Canada is very happy to hear that Belize will also be sending participants to attend the training sessions being held in El Salvador in January. This will bring the total to 6 participating countries coming together in one location for training, these include: El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Belize.