ACT News Update
EMT02/02
Mutare, November 20, 2002
By Rainer Lang
"Training opens our minds". Joseph Johnson, development officer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sierra Leone, is referring to an Emergency Management Training (EMT) course he recently attended at the Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe.
Thirty-three participants from Africa and Indonesia - all staff of members of the global alliance of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International - attended the six-week course which lasted from September 23 to November 2. The course, which offers comprehensive training on disaster management, this time focussed specifically on the ACT appeals process, budgeting and reporting and handling communication during emergencies.
The course also forms part of a wider capacity building program that enhances emergency preparedness and response within the ACT network. Johnson said that the presence of staff members from the ACT Coordinating office in Geneva, Switzerland, who conducted training sessions in finance, appeals and communication, was important. "Now we feel like we are part of the ACT family," he said.
For the new executive director of Yayasan Tanggul Benkana (YTB) (Communion of Churches in Indonesia) the training offered a "unique opportunity to learn directly from ACT and our friends in Africa". Participants from Eritrea in turn felt that "all the things we learnt here can be applied at home" and were already planning a smaller workshop for their ACT Forum in Eritrea.
Peter Mbae who represented Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) Kenya, said that the course strengthened his understanding of how ACT operates and that an appeal is being prepared for the capacity building of the Eastern African ACT members under the Nairobi ACT Forum.
Thobekile Sibanda, a community worker with the Lutheran Development Services (LDS) in Zimbabwe, found the course invaluable, as Africa is a continent that has and continues to experience many emergencies. She said for her it is important to learn new skills on how to relate to beneficiaries appropriately. "We were not trained in counseling before," she says, adding that, "it is important for the community workers who stay with the communities."
The course also offered time and space for the participants to share their personal experiences, especially for those who had been affected by conflict. A participant from Angola, who works with the YMCA in that country, shared his story on how he had been caught by UNITA soldiers and held in an underground prison for 45 days before he escaped and fled to neighboring Zambia, where he lived in a refugee camp.
Ghobogal Tarr who works with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Guinea also recounted his experiences as a refugee from Liberia. He still does not know where his parents and other relatives are.
The organizer of the course, Rev. Shirley Dewolf, a lecturer at Africa University, said the engagement of the participants was really impressive. Regional workshops are being planned as a follow-up to the training.
ACT Web Site address: http://www.act-intl.org