Human Initiative Improves the Quality of Humanitarian Volunteers

Sukabumi – Volunteers play an important role in disaster management, both in the pre-disaster and emergency response periods. Therefore, volunteers must continue to improve their abilities and qualifications in handling all lines of disaster. For this reason, the Human Initiative feels the need to hold joint training between humanitarian agencies to improve the quality of humanitarian volunteers.

This training is a forum to develop the capacity of volunteers. It is also a means of communication to increase a sense of togetherness and solid unity among fellow disaster management volunteers. They will get supplies, knowledge, and skills about disaster, transportation and evacuation, jungle survival, vertical rescue, travel management, and land navigation techniques.

It is hoped that this training can improve skills, creativity and professionalism. Especially in an effort to provide the best service to the community so as to create disaster management volunteers who are professional, ready, and alert.

Training Activities

On the first day, Subur Rojinawi, Head of the Indonesian Disaster Management Squad, provided the volunteers with materials on disaster management. In this session, participants were provided with an understanding of what a disaster is, the potential disasters in Indonesia and the concept of the disaster itself.

It was continued with material on transportation and evacuation, introduction of evacuation tools, as well as hands-on practice of emergency transfer techniques, and non-emergency transfer techniques.

After dinner, the participants gathered again in the platoon tent for a briefing on survival materials by Dedi Muhardi, the Coordinator of the FMI Education and Training Center and members of APGI. The instructor, who has been in the SAR world since 1999, said that science is about survival. Things that we must do and avoid when conducting a survival, priority needs when doing survival, foraging techniques, as well as making shelters and fires which are the basic knowledge for rescuers.

It didn’t stop there. They immediately received training to apply the material they had just learned, namely making solo bivouacs. It then continued with the instructor’s evaluation for several types of bivouacs that are not suitable for resting.

Saturday (13/11/21), the training started with the participants practicing one of the descender techniques down steep terrain by taking turns rappelling. Furthermore, Dedi Muhardi, provided and guided the participants to learn one of the techniques for evacuation of victims in vertical rescue science, namely the lowering system.

Vertical Rescue Practice

Vertical Rescue itself is an evacuation technique (moving to a safer location) objects (both goods and people/victims) from a low point to a higher point or vice versa, on steep/vertical terrain either dry or wet or uncertain. Vertical Rescue is often used in Rock Climbing, Caving, firefighters, mine workers, altitude workers and the military.

While lowering is a technique of moving the victim by lowering the object/victim to a lower point/place below it. In the Lowering technique, the object/victim can be lowered with or without the use of a stretcher.

In the activity simulation, the participants take turns acting as victims and rescuers to test their understanding and skills.

In the evening, together with Udi Juandi, the participants again received material on land navigation. Map recognition, map reading skills, compass recognition, and the ability to determine coordinates on a map are primary knowledge that must be mastered by rescuers.

The direct practice of man to man compass took place the next day, Sunday (14/11/21). Then continued with the disaster game to find coordinates on the map and save survivors.

“Never get tired of organizing the events like this again. If necessary, continue this activity to the next batch with the same or new participants. So that we who have gained knowledge from this activity can add to it. It even deepens knowledge,” said Endah, one of 23 participants who took part in this training.

Initiator Friends can join in learning together and share experiences in the next Human Initiative activity, by visiting the HIVE website and being a part of us so you don’t miss any information about future activities.

See you at the next activity, Initiator Friends.