Chapter 2: Sick? Get Help Fast

Lily: "Feeling bad? Don't wait. Tell a grown-up straight away!"

Rangers are not doctors. Our job is to notice, tell a grown-up fast and help gently. Dr. Hazel says the quickest helper is the one who speaks up.

What Rangers know

Danger signs: go to a helper now. These signs in any child mean a grown-up takes them to a clinic straight away:
breathing that is fast or hard work
can't drink or keeps throwing up
very sleepy or hard to wake
a fit (shaking they can't stop)
a high fever in a baby
Tummy trouble. With runny poo, the body loses water. Sip safe water often, keep eating, and let a grown-up mix the special drink (ORS). Wash hands after the toilet.
Sleep under the net. Where there are mosquitoes, sleep under a treated net every night, tucked in all round. Tell a grown-up about holes.
Rash plus fever. Tell a grown-up, stay a little apart from babies, and let a health worker check.
Cool a burn. Put the burn under cool, clean, running water for 20 minutes. No butter, oil, toothpaste or ice. Tell a grown-up.
A small cut. Wash it with clean water, cover it with something clean, and tell a grown-up. Only a grown-up opens the first-aid kit.
Too hot / too cold.
Too hot: red face, headache, dizzy. Go to shade, sip water, tell.
Too cold: shivering, slow words. Put on dry layers, get a blanket, tell.
Calling for help. Know how to find a grown-up and say: who is hurt, where you are, and what happened.
Medicine is a grown-up's job. Never take or give medicine yourself.
Cholera and bad diarrhoea: go now. Lots and lots of watery poo (sometimes like rice water), sunken eyes, very thirsty or very weak: a grown-up takes them to the health tent straight away, giving sips of ORS on the way. Clean water, clean hands and latrines stop it spreading.
Cough plus fast or hard breathing (the chest pulls in, a noisy breath) in a child or baby is a pneumonia danger sign: go to the clinic now. Keep babies warm.
Vaccines. The clinic jabs and drops protect you from measles and other serious illnesses. When helpers call for vaccines, go with your grown-up. A little pinch, big protection.
Dengue and mosquitoes. Mosquitoes that bite in the day breed in tiny pools of still water. With a grown-up, cover water containers, tip out water in old pots and tyres, and wear long sleeves. Fever with a bad headache, pain behind the eyes, a rash or bleeding gums: tell a grown-up and go to the clinic.
Too hot signs are in Chapter 11.
Learn your local help number with your grown-up, and where the nearest health tent is.

Ranger checklist

☐ I know lots of watery poo means go now.
☐ I know cough plus fast breathing means go now.
☐ I go for vaccines when helpers call.
☐ I help cover water and tip out puddles in pots, with a grown-up.
☐ I can name three danger signs.
☐ I tell a grown-up fast when someone feels very sick.
☐ I know the cool-water rule for burns (20 minutes).
☐ I can wash and cover a small cut, and then tell.
☐ I can say who, where and what when I ask for help.
☐ I sleep under the net, tucked in.
☐ I never touch medicine.

Earn your badge (Get Help Fast · First Aid; Badge_Matrix.csv)

Level	Get Help Fast (Health)	First Aid
❤️ Heart	Say: "Feeling bad? Tell a grown-up straight away."	Say: "Cool, clean, cover, tell."
🥉 Bronze	Point to the danger-sign pictures.	Show the burn rule and a small-cut cover with props.
🥈 Silver	Practise asking for help (who, where, what) with a grown-up.	Help a grown-up with a real small cut by fetching clean water and a cloth.
🥇 Gold	Help make the family's "where is the clinic" card.	Teach the burn rule to a friend.
💎 Platinum	Help a health worker's talk for a group, with a grown-up.	Join a real first-aid course for young people, with a grown-up.

Watch and learn

Planned Health arc: Danger Signs: Go to the Clinic Now · Sleep Under the Net · Tummy Trouble · Helping With Baby · Hungry Signs and the Feeding Tent · Measles: Rash + Fever · Cool a Burn
Planned First Aid arc: Wash a Small Cut · Call for Help · Too Hot / Too Cold (Dr. Hazel's kit)
Produced: EP05 Wash Your Hands (#005)
Go Bag #GB1: the contact card and safe pocket help helpers reach your family.

Grown-up note

These are recognise-and-refer messages, written in the spirit of IMCI-style danger signs and IFRC first-aid guidance. They are not a substitute for local health services. Diarrhoea: mix an ORS packet exactly as printed (usually 1 packet in 1 litre of safe water). If there is no packet, a home mix is 6 level teaspoons of sugar + ½ level teaspoon of salt in 1 litre of safe water, given in small, frequent sips. Keep breastfeeding and keep feeding. Ask a health worker about zinc for children, which WHO recommends for 10–14 days (the health worker gives the dose). Have a medical reviewer check this chapter before it is used.