Georgetown University: School of Foreign Service in Qatar

Seven students from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Qatar) recently completed a training course on disaster management that was conducted in partnership with the Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS).

The Service Learning Program at Georgetown organized a four-day course titled “Disaster Management Basics”. The course was organized and delivered by the Qatar Red Crescent Society. Uday Rosario, Service Learning Coordinator explains that the course is part of the service learning program’s skill building initiatives. “In order to facilitate the ability of our students to give back to society, we have to provide them with the skills to ensure that their contributions would be valuable,” he said.

The course covered topics on risk analysis and intervention. Students learned how to assess and promote physical, environmental and emotional well-being during a disaster. They also learned skills such as setting up and managing a beneficiaries and distribution system, site planning, camp construction and media relations during a crisis.

“As most of our students are looking for careers in international organizations, it is essential that they learn some of the skills that are at the very heart of the work of the international organizations,” explained Rosario.

Through the classroom training, the course teaches students the basic theories of managing disasters. Only after completion of this basic training can students assist QRCS in responding to disasters. This year the QRCS conducted relief operations in Afghanistan, and in Myanmar following Cyclone Nargis in May.

Aakash Jayaprakash (SFS '11) decided to sign up for the course in order to be able to help out in times of need. "Signing up for the course made us better aware about all the effort, dangers, logistics and heavy planning required to handle a real life disaster and gave us the training to be able to do the most basic of these things," he said.

"I'm really glad I got the chance to undergo this training, because it has equipped me with skills that are both practical and valuable. It has given me a chance, however small it may be, to give back to my society and my culture a part of what has been given to me," expressed Kimberly Fernandes (SFS' 11).

Jayaprakash and some of his trained classmates will be leaving to the Washington campus in June for a series of lectures at Georgetown. They are scheduled to attend a conference at Fordham University titled, "Engaging Students in Humanitarian Action", which is a part of the Jesuit Universities Humanitarian Action Network (JUHAN).

The conference brings together students and staff from Jesuit universities to learn best practices in disaster management, which they can replicate on their home campuses upon their return.

This fall, Georgetown has scheduled an advanced disaster management course for students who wish to proceed to a higher level of certification. Rosario hopes to broaden this experience to more students within Georgetown and Education City in order to create core team in Qatar that could react appropriately to international disasters when they occur.