Training of Trainers

25 April 2018 RedR

The ongoing conflict in Syria continues to contribute to the largest refugee crisis in the world.

There are now more than 5.3 million Syrians refugees in neighbouring countries, with over 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Lebanon.
In 2017 RedR UK ran a Training of Trainers course in Lebanon. Thanks to funding from the HCD Memorial Trust we were able to offer free places on the course to those working directly with people affected by disaster. We caught up with two of the trainees, Antoinette Maroukel and Sawsan Safa.

Training of Trainers

Antoinette Maroukel is a field officer for Nabad, a Lebanese NGO working directly with Syrian refugees in Lebanon. She explains the challenges created by this context and the work her organisation does to address them:
“Syrian refugees were evicted from the Lebanese village where they were living, due to tensions with the local population and were sent to four different villages
in Beqaa.
I work with the refugees and Lebanese communities, implementing projects to increase social stability. Through the training people from different cultures, different backgrounds are introduced to each other in a good way. We hope that this project will help them to live together without conflict.”

RedR’s Training of Trainers course gives humanitarian workers the skills and knowledge to become effective trainers.

“I think the hardest part of my job as a trainer is to reach the biggest number of people with your ideas. You have a message, the challenge is to communicate this message to the biggest number of people and to take them with you.”

Sawsan Safa

A project officer for Lutherine World Relief, working with Syrian refugees

Effective Training

By passing on their knowledge and experiences through effective training techniques, humanitarian aid workers can extend the impact of their work to future projects and generations. Sawsan shares the impact of the training on the refugees that she works with:

“After taking the training I feel more empowered and this has had a positive impact on the refugees that I work with. They look at you and think, wow she’s confident! If she can deliver a training with confidence then maybe I can do it too. If someone is sitting in a room feeling desperate, but they can see that I’m confident and empowered then I think it will inspire them.”

Red Alert

This story originally appeared in Red Alert, RedR UK’s annual publication of news, trends and stories from the humanitarian sector. Read the publication online here.