In late 2016, RedR ran a series of tailor-made courses for the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in Yangon and in Rakhine State, where inter-communal conflict has forced tens of thousands of people - mainly from the Muslim Rohingya minority - from their homes. Most of them are living in camps, in appalling conditions, and without access to basic services.
Min Htut is a Deputy Programme Manager with DRC in Rakhine. He attended RedR’s ‘Humanitarian Essentials’ training, along with 'Managing Projects in Emergencies'.
"I knew the training was going to be ‘interactive’ but my expectations were quite low in this respect," he remembers. "I didn’t expect we’d be doing this interesting and active scenario, working with a limited budget and within a tight timeframe. When we’re doing these things in real life we may have a month or two to complete our tasks. But here, we had to finish everything within a day! So the training went beyond my expectations.
"Since the training, we have got better at coordinating and sharing information, within our teams and across departments," says Min Htut. "Our coordination is better, and we work better as a team. The result is that we are able to provide assistance at the right time and in the right place, and this makes us more effective."