CFE-DM hosts 25th annual HELP course
CFE-DM Staff
09.20.2022
East-West Center, Hawaii – Twenty-nine participants from 15 nations gathered at the East-West Center’s Hawaii I’min International Conference Center adjacent to the University of Hawaii at Manoa to participate in a two-week course hosted by the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance in partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the University of Hawaii. The course, Health Emergencies in Large Populations, develops the knowledge, skills and approach that multidisciplinary professionals across humanitarian, health, civilian and defense organizations need to make effective decisions during humanitarian missions. The course occurred Aug. 15 - 26, 2022.
Stephanie Liu, a HELP alumni and Program Specialist with CFE-DM's Public Health Program participated in much of the coordination for this year's course.
“Coordinating the HELP workshop for the past five years has been rewarding to me both personally and professionally," said Liu. "Being involved in the workshop activities and exercises assisted with my own professional development. Aside from networking with the participants, I also enjoy seeing how HELP builds health emergency preparedness and response capacities in the participants by translating concepts into practice.”
Conceptualization of HELP was originally developed in Geneva, Switzerland in 1986 by the ICRC and was
later adopted by CFE-DM starting in 1997. This year marked the 25th anniversary of CFE-DM facilitated HELP Courses. Dr. Rudi Coninx is a former member of the ICRC who not only attended the inaugural HELP as a participant, but later went on to join the ICRC and the World Health Organization and help develop training material for the course. Coninx continues to teach several subjects of the HELP course and did so at this year’s course.
“The HELP course is looking at how humanitarian emergencies evolve, and the program adjusts to that,” said Coninx. “I think that today if you want to know what are the overall issues that you will
be faced with in humanitarian missions as a humanitarian worker in less than two weeks, the HELP
course is the place to go.”
The HELP course fits in well with CFE-DM’s mission to provide academic research, civil-military coordination training, and operational insights to support decision-making before, during, and after crises. Moreover, CFE-DM is the only military-affiliated organization to host the course. Participants of the course include military members as well as professionals from civilian background. Coninx says that because of the increased involvement of militaries in humanitarian assistance, this type of civilian-military collaboration is vital.
“You see more and more military involved in humanitarian actions and NGOs involved as well, and quite often they have different views and visions so it’s important to get to know each other and get along so in that sense its actually quite good to make sure the [civilian-military cooperation] concepts are in this course and are available to both military and non-military,” said Coninx.
This course gives participants from various countries and professions a chance to interact with and learn from each other. Participants found this aspect particularly beneficial.
“They are coming from diverse countries, and they are bringing a lot like lessons learned to the table,” said Umeda Sadykova a health worker from Tajikistan. “I am learning from them, and I think that is the best way to collaborate to learn as much as possible within the short period of time and be efficient back at home. The course, though intense, still gives opportunities to discuss, to ask for clarification, and it builds kind of the network we will rely on. As somebody said: yesterday we were just like strangers, today we are colleagues, and tomorrow we are best teams.”
Sadykova says this course will impact the work she does back home due to the potential of a large influx of refugees. This is one of the reasons she sought out the HELP course.
“I wanted to get the updated training on Health Emergencies in Large Populations in order to address the needs of the refugees we are going to receive,” said Sadykova.
A common sentiment expressed by those who coordinated the HELP Course and those who participated in it, was that the course brought together a wide variety of people likely to assist in a health emergency, giving students the opportunity to build lasting relationships with relevant collaborators.
“The most significant output of the HELP course has been the development of a global network of alumni that share a multi-disciplinary understanding, language, and approach towards responding to health emergencies,” said Craig Jaques, a graduate of the Johns-Hopkins University HELP Course and past facilitator of CFE-DM HELP courses during his tenure at CFE-DM. “This has been critical in a historic global pandemic, requiring all of us to rely more heavily on our personal and professional networks towards ensuring a coordinated, cogent response. The Center's HELP course has been preparing professionals for these unique challenges for over 25 years. I am confident that Hawai'i and the Asia-Pacific region have been better prepared to respond as a result.”
According to CFE-DM’s Public Health Program Manager, Alice Tsai, “As one of our Program’s goals is to support the readiness of our civilian and military partners in responding to health threats and managing public health impacts of disasters in the Indo-Pacific region, HELP serves as an unique training opportunity for both Health and Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Response actors in developing mutual understanding and enabling multisectorial collaboration in future crises.”
Toward the end of the course, participants worked together to create an action plan in a summary exercise focusing on one or more of the key areas taught during HELP: program planning, food and nutrition, water and sanitation, control of communicable diseases, health services, epidemiology, protection of civilians, and international humanitarian law. Participants worked together in teams. Each team presented their action plan to simulated potential funders in humanitarian aid on the last day of the course, demonstrating the forged links and capacity for humanitarian aid workers, civilian, and military to respond to health emergencies in large populations.
