| Author |
Message |
Aid Workers Exchange
Guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2003 - 09:35 am: | |
Aid Workers Exchange - April 16, 2003
Staying Safe … When It Isn’t
By Barney Mayhew
Should aid workers stay out of dangerous areas? Or should they brave the risks, to help people who are in need? According to the UN, at least 27 aid workers were killed by violence in 2001. The year before it was at least 48. read full article
Do you have any safety and security tips for aid workers? How do you take care of yourself, your colleagues and your equipment?
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Christine Clarence
Guest
| | Posted on Monday, April 21, 2003 - 12:58 pm: | |
I have just recently completed a Personal Security and Communications course run by RedR in Melbourne and it was excellent. There were 24 participants and the course was a good mixture of theory and scenarios and role playing. The training was for 3 days, and all participants felt a lot more skilled in the area of security and safety. Highly recommended for all workers!
Christine |
Corinna Kreidler
Guest
| | Posted on Monday, April 21, 2003 - 01:03 pm: | |
The German Association of Development NGOs published a policy paper on "Minimum Standards regarding Security of Humanitarian Personnel". It is available online on www.venro.org/publikationen/archiv/personalsicherheit_engl.pdf
I think that paper is a very valuable contribution to your debate this week.
Please be also informed that Alliance 2015, a family of 5 European development NGOs, currently runs a security training project co-funded by ECHO. We are organising 12 regional security trainings based on the materials developped by RedR and Koenraad van Brabant.
If you wish to get more information, please do not hesitate to contact me, I am the coordinator of that project and train on the workshops.
Best regards
Corinna Kreidler
Coordinator and Trainer
Alliance 2015 Security Awareness Training Project
c/o Deutsche Welthungerhilfe / German Agro Action
Adenauer Allee 134
D - 53113 Bonn
Phone: +49 -(0)228-2288-218
Fax: +49-(0)228-2288190
Email: corinna.kreidler@dwhh.de
www.alliance2015.org www.welthungerhilfe.de |
Mihir R. Bhatt
Guest
| | Posted on Monday, April 21, 2003 - 01:07 pm: | |
Dear Friends,
The safety notes by Barney Mayhew are very useful. Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
MIHIR R. BHATT
Honorary Director - Disaster Mitigation Institute
_________________________________________________
Mihir R. Bhatt
Honorary Director, Disaster Mitigation Institute
411, Sakar Five, Near Natraj Cinema, Ashram Road, Ahmedabad - 380 009, India
Tel: 0091-79-6586234/6583607, Fax: 0091-79-6582962
E-mail: dmi@icenet.net, Visit our website: www.southasiadisasters.net, www.sphereinindia.net |
Warren Johns
Guest
| | Posted on Monday, April 21, 2003 - 01:11 pm: | |
Some safety tips from working in Somalia, 1991
- make sure for yourself that you have "fast charge" batteries in your walkie talky radios
- all vehicles should have first aid kits...and radios for communication
- go to the offices of a local company (It may be in a nearby country, i.e. Kenya) providing plane charter services. Ask an experienced pilot to mark on a map 'emergency' landing sites. Once agreeded on what sites your NGO will use get avaiation fuel transported to that site.
- know and remember what is 'normal' for the area you are going into. Example: "Saturday 15 June 1991, when travelling to the SCF store my local counterpart Yusuf noticed few people occupied the road ahead. I told the driver to stop. He continued. We came to a vehicle, shots were fired and I got to the floor. Finally the driver turned into a side road."
Normal is people moving about and the sound of people going about their business - not the absence of people.
- If you are going to a local market never show more than a few American dollars bills. A man was robbed and killed in Mogadishu after the thieves had seen a handful of US bills in a the foreigner's hand.
- Probably the best advice is to listen to the local people. After our local staff warned me there might be trouble I moved to the hotel where the Red Cross Staff lived. On Monday 17 June 1991, at 8am outside the hotel there were few people, fewer cars, no buses. About 930am the fighting from near the hotel to the stadium began. The police had positioned their armed vehicles near the hotel to attack looters and their clan supporters in the stadium. All day there was the loud boom of the heavy guns used by the police. Some of the time I lay on the floor in a cupboard in my room.
In the afternoon I went with to the ground floor corridor and lay on the floor. Later the machine gun was taken from the roof and positioned close to us in the foyer. A deafening and frightening noise as the machine gun fired across the street. Once it was dark the shooting stopped.
Warren Johns |
maurice herson
Guest
| | Posted on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 03:12 pm: | |
There is a great deal of safety and security related stuff out there. And it has to be the responsibility of each individual to take care of their own security - no-one else can cross the road for you - and that of their colleagues (same agency, partner agencies) and those supposed to benefit from the work we are doing.
However it must also be the responsibility of managers to manage the security of those they manage, and of organisations to have systems that will as far as possible minimise and mitigate risks. It is dangerous and irresponsible to leave it up to the whim, skill or inclination of each individual how they deal with safety issues; the emphasis on 'tips' for how to deal with types of risky situations implies that it's up to the individual more than up to the organisation,
The People in Aid code has something on this. The InterAction Field Cooperation Protocol also puts security among the areas for coordination at field level. |
Ben Emmens
Guest
| | Posted on Monday, April 28, 2003 - 03:37 pm: | |
Further to Barney’s excellent paper (16 April) reminding us of the importance of proper safety / security management policies and procedures, together with the useful comments that have followed, I would just like to echo Maurice Herson’s point that although individuals ultimately have to take responsibility for their own security, managers and organisations are nonetheless also responsible for ensuring security management guidelines exist and are adhered to by both international and national staff. Maurice mentions People In Aid’s code of good practice which emphasises the organisational responsibility by devoting one of its seven principles to staff security and well-being.
People In Aid also has a number of useful tools available for organisations in this respect – the code of good practice itself (which is currently being revised and due for release later this year); policy guidelines to help organisations who are reviewing or drawing up a security policy; and a newly revised edition of our popular Preventing Accidents handbook, to name but three. For those interested in finding out more about People In Aid please visit us at http://www.peopleinaid.org). |
Jenny Tinker
Guest
| | Posted on Thursday, May 01, 2003 - 02:21 pm: | |
RedR London runs various NGO Security courses both in the field and in the UK. Upcoming courses are:
Personal Security in Emergencies: 8-11 May 2003 in Gloucestershire, UK
Security Management Workshop: 12-16 May 2003 in Sussex, UK
Security Training Curriculum Development Workshop: 19-22 May 2003 in Sussex, UK.
If you are interested in participating in any of the above, or would like further information, please contact the RedR training team on: training@redr.org, or visit the RedR website: www.redr.org |
Richard McCormick
Guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 11:28 pm: | |
There's a new group due to start operations this month: Humanitarian Security International. They specialize in humanitarian security services, and stress acceptance strategies first (nice for a change). Apparently this service will be little or no cost to NGOs in need. I was in contact with them and was told they will be ready for work January 15, 2004.
www.HumanitarianSecurity.org
staff@HumanitarianSecurity.org |
Matthew Bader
Member
Username: Matthew
Post Number: 11
Registered: 09-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 05:15 pm: | |
Dear Richard, Do you know to what extent they show an affiliation with the United States while in the field? The use of the stars and stripes in their logo and web banner is not exactly reassuring; perhaps they promote NGO partnerships with the Marines or other such garantors of safety? Can you confirm? In my experience it takes a very well-adjusted person to properly analyze and predict safe conduct and security response in a field setting. Many ex-military (although we have no reason to suspect that this is the case here) types leap directly into this field at the end of their military careers, not realizing that diplomacy and human relations rather than tactical strategy are the key elements in keeping your people and beneficiairies safe. In any case, I find that neutrality is a key protective element for field NGOs in high-risk security situations. I wonder what Humanitarian Security's take on this is?
All the best, Happy New Year 2004!
Matthew Bader Regional Representative
JACANA real world development US Headquarters 3916 Harrison Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20015 +1 (202) 255-5854 www.jacanaworld.org
Matthew Bader - mbaderATjacanaworld.org
Regional Representative - Southern Africa
Jacana - www.jacanaworld.org |
Richard M.
Guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 06, 2004 - 02:01 am: | |
Matthew,
Good points! Yet, in my e-mail exchange with humanitarian security's president, I did get a strong sense that the "acceptance strategy" towards security was their key focus, as I mentioned in my initial post.
To me, this may mean neutrality is an important factor. He never once mentioned the military or affiliations. If they wear their logo in the field though, they may not portray the neutrality message effectively.
In any case, I started looking at logos and personnel of several other security companies that have been more or less advertised in these forums, and found several interesting items. One company sports a rifle scope "cross-hairs" in their logo, and another states that they only use former special forces soldiers from a particular country.
So I wonder, are these things more or less damaging to a security company than the American flag is?
I guess in the humanitarian business it’s not always what’s in the package but the wrapping that's important.
Stay safe all,
Richard
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Richard M
Guest
| | Posted on Saturday, January 10, 2004 - 08:21 pm: | |
By the way...USAID uses prominently displays the US Flag in their banner logo  |
David Kovar
Guest
| | Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 04:21 pm: | |
Are there any US based firms or individuals providing trainging to NGOs on security topics? It is well past January 2004 and the Humanitarian Security International site is still blank.
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Linda Poteat
Member
Username: Linda
Post Number: 3
Registered: 04-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 05:09 pm: | |
Hi, David! If you are looking to participate in a training course, your best bet at this point would probably be RedR Canada, which is conducting a Security Management Workshop in 3-6 June in Toronto. Here's the link: http://www.redr.org/redr_canada/training/NGO_SecManagWorkshop.htm
Good luck - Linda |
Graham Flood-Hunt
Guest
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 09:10 am: | |
EFT are holding a 2 day Hostage Survival course in Switzerland 25/26 April with classroom presentations with interactive scenarios on day one and realistic field simulations with expert coaching and experienced role-players on day two. Places are limited to twelve participants per course only.
More details: info@essentialfieldtraining.org or call 0041 (0) 78 881 8332
Please note: unfortunately there are no places still available for the previously advertised course on 4/5 April. |
John Schafer
Member
Username: Findschafe
Post Number: 1
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Monday, April 11, 2005 - 04:28 am: | |
There is a great resource that downloades on the computer that allows the user to click and view what to do in every security situation.
www.stratos6.com |
arman sheikh
Guest
| | Posted on Monday, December 19, 2005 - 05:08 am: | |
i want my trust to be funded by ngos what is the method |
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