RedR's Needs Assessment course provides vital skills for Haiti response

Ben Jenkins is a Training Officer for UK-based search and rescue charity, SARAID and has been working for them for the past nine years. Over the years, he has attended a number of RedR courses including Field Logistics in Emergencies and Needs Assessment in Emergencies in 2008.

He flew out to Haiti with a team from SARAID following the devastating earthquake on 12 January. The team was there for ten days conducting search and rescue operations in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.

Ben was pleased to discover that he was staying in the same camp as two other aid workers he met on RedR’s Needs Assessment in Emergencies course; Jude Highgate also from SARAID and Valerie Rzepka from Canadian Medical Assistance Teams (CMAT).

Having personal connections like this when working out in the field makes a big difference, as Ben comments, “We tried to co-ordinate meeting up as soon as we were aware that we would be working in the same environment. It was great to finally meet up in the field, work together and share information. A warm hug was shared and a friendly face is always a welcome sight in a disaster zone.”

Ben was working alongside the UN and other agencies based in Port-au-Prince. SARAID established a UN Co-ordination Centre in the Dominican Republic at Santa Domingo airport in conjunction with United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) and then conducted search and rescue duties for several days in Port-au-Prince.

He found what he’d learnt on the Needs Assessment in Emergencies course helped him a great deal; “The needs assessment course allowed me to observe some of the different players and information that is needed in a disaster zone - thus allowing me to connect on a personal level and work more efficiently in a highly charged situation. SARAID and myself worked alongside Map Action in the field at Port-au-Prince and used some of the items that we were taught by Nigel Woof in the field.”

Transportation and communication is always a problem in a disaster zone, luckily SARAID was able to secure a truck and with this transport was able to assist the CMAT team by delivering them to the field. Fuel was hard to come by although this situation improved as time went on.

For a small team, SARAID achieved some outstanding results and were glad to be part of the international response. Ben and his colleagues worked with many international teams, alongside the UN and of course the local people to ensure that they searched and cleared as many buildings as possible in the hope of finding survivors. Ben feels pleased he was able to make a contribution to the international response but is aware that it will take a long time for the Haiti government and people to recover from the disaster.  He believes however that the resilience of the local people coupled with the assistance of the international community will allow them to recover.

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