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751 people trained to fight against COVID-19 in 6 weeks!

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Over the last two months we have developed three new courses, to help individuals at home in the UK to deal with some of the difficulties that the COVID-19 pandemic has created.

Our courses - Culturally Appropriate Hygiene Promotion for Covid-19, Covid-19 Myth Busting and Managing Stress During the Covid-19 Pandemic were delivered live by our excellent trainers and were all FREE! Participants came from all professional backgrounds, including the NHS, the BBC, UK Mental Health, Cancer Research UK, Save the Children, Water Aid, and local mutual aid group volunteers, just to name a few.  

Our impact
Our impact

Since the 16th April we have run 48 courses, trained over 750 individuals and 93% of participants rated the courses “excellent” or “good”! We also offered HPAss badges for each course and a Milestone Badge for those who completed all three courses. In six weeks we are delighted to have given 196 digital HPass badges! 

We have been thrilled with the response we have received from participants

“These courses helped me apply a new lens to how I approach and assess communication, perception and response to change” Melissa O'Carroll, Marketing Lead and a Mutual Aid Volunteer  

“Super-gifted trainer - Stephanie is interesting, engaging and remarkably participative” Neil Barry, consultant to the UN, DFID and other organisations. 

“Tips around counteracting rumours/myths is going to be extremely useful for me in my job” Jarina Choudhury, Volunteering Development Consultant at NCVO 

We are proud to be contributing to this pandemic in the best way we know how – building knowledge, skills and capacities. 

Myth busting course
Myth busting course

It’s been like running a marathon

We always think of far flung places when we speak of emergencies. But a pandemic does not recognise borders. Our neighbours, colleagues, friends and families have been affected seeking accessible, digestible, accurate and up to date information to protect themselves and their loved ones. It has been both fascinating and rewarding to be able to bring our knowledge and experience to support affected and at-risk people, groups and communities here in the UK.   

It’s been like running a marathon. We scheduled two to three courses every day to keep up with the demand. We offered modules in the mornings, evenings and weekends too to accommodate different schedules and reach as many people as humanely possible with the resources we had available.

Keti Khurtsia

RedR UK Programme Manager

Interactive and engaging learning process, excellent facilitation skills, experience and in-depth knowledge of the subject matter by the trainers are highlighted as best aspects in participant evaluation reports.

Kirstie Meheux

RedR UK Learning & Development Coordinator

More courses on more topics in MENA – all for FREE

With the financial support of H2H and UK Aid, we are expanding the programme to offer free online interactive courses to colleagues working for humanitarian and development organisations in MENA, the region where so many continue to suffer deprivation, wars and lack to basic facilities. For millions of refugees and displaced people living in crammed camps or informal settlements, social distancing is not an option. 

How do you promote effective disease control and prevention in these settings? How do you manage myths and rumours about COVID-19? How do you support staff and communities to manage stress and protect their mental health? We are adapting our COVID-19 courses to help address these specific challenges faced in the COVID-19 response in MENA.  

We are also developing new courses including on topics such as community engagement with affected populations, gender, age and disability considerations in COVID-19 response. The courses are being designed by experts and will be offered for free starting from mid-June. Sign up now!

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