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God’s helpers are always there

The district commander for Brakpan sat down to talk to the Brakpan Herald about what the job entails.

EMS Chaplaincy and Trauma Support are all over the country, but the nine members in Brakpan work hard to provide support where they can.

Emotional and medical support chaplains get called to scenes where trauma has occurred, including accidents, crime scenes, suicides, or other medical emergencies.

Chaplains provide emotional support and support emergency services with securing scenes and treating the injured. Some chaplains are even trained in emergency first aid and can provide basic medical assistance on scenes.

EMS chaplains is a Christian-based NPO. However, they serve community members of any faith, race or gender and do not discriminate with their care.


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They provide support from the Bible’s perspective and God’s guidance but do not enforce Christianity on anyone without consent.

They are invited to scenes by other emergency services, where they can help with crowd control, communicate updates to loved ones, be of emotional support to the victims, do emergency first aid when qualified, and do referrals to social workers or counsellors when necessary for further support.

“We are a Christian-based organisation, but when we are at a scene, we are public servants and will only pray for victims if they ask and we always keep it short and sweet,” said Wayne Hunt, the Brakpan District commander.

Their priority on any scene is to keep everyone calm, keep the scene in order and support where and how they can. They often work with emergency medical services, CPFs, the SAPS and other first responders.


Katinka Hunt is the district secretary and Wayne Hunt is the district commander of the Brakpan EMS chaplains.

“We also often have an emotional debrief with each other, which I think is important. The things we see are traumatising to us too, and we need to talk about them and share the burden so that we continue helping our community,” said district secretary Katinka Hunt.

EMS chaplains are also often at the forefront of disasters, with the organisation having trained volunteer firefighters and medics across SA and search and rescue teams.

They also frequently stay in contact with victims they support to see how they are recovering and follow up with counsellors or social workers to see how the treatment of victims is going.

“What is important to us, and the values we instil in our members, are humility, thankfulness, and asking God to lend us his strength, not working on our own strength. We are spreading His light, and we must live accordingly,” Katinka concluded.



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