From February 2010, some 500 doctors and volunteers from the Order of Malta’s Italian Emergency Corps will work beside the Guardia di Finanza to provide a first-aid service directly on board the latter’s air and naval units.

The memorandum of understanding, recently signed in Rome by the Commander General of the Guardia di Finanza Cosimo D’Arrigo and by the Magistral Commissioner of the Order of Malta’s Italian Association Narciso Salvo di Pietraganzili, also specifies ‘the development of common training initiatives and vocational updating for staff’. Volunteers will thus be able to familiarize themselves with the flight procedures of the Guardia di Finanza’s helicopter units.

With this agreement, the Order of Malta’s Italian Emergency Corps will provide first-aid medical teams to the air units of the Guardia di Finanza of Pisa, Cagliari, Catania and Grottaglie, as well as to the Pratica di Mare maritime exploration group. This mission will also enable the Order of Malta’s doctors to help immigrants at risk in the Strait of Sicily, where the corps has been operating since 2007 on the Italian Coastguards’ vessels stationed on Lampedusa.