When the Typhoon Haiyan devastated major parts of the Philippines in 2013, Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB) Deutschland deployed its First Assistance Samaritan Team (FAST) to deliver primary health care during the emergency response phase. Skillful team members were directly deployed from Germany as the Philippines Government opened doors for international assistances to overcome the massive destructions caused by Super-Typhoon Haiyan. Following post-disaster phase, ASB, through it’s country office in Indonesia, started to implement disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction (DiDRR) programme in Typhoon Haiyan affected areas. Through direct partnership with 8 local organisations, ASB aims to support community resilience towards disaster and social inclusion in disaster management.
While strengthening community resilience through partnership programme, ASB always seeks opportunity to transfer knowledge to local resources, including transfer capacity in delivering humanitarian response. On August 1st – 3rd 2016, ASB conducted Introductory Training to Humanitarian Action in Manila. Representatives of 8 partner organisations coming from several provinces attended the training. Through this activity, ASB aimed to transfer knowledge and capacity regarding basic principle and mechanism of humanitarian action to local organisations. During the training, participants explored the Concept of Dignity and what it means to affected people, questioned what kind of “system” is underlying Humanitarian Action, the Core Humanitarian Standards, the Sphere Project, approaches of managing people in emergency situations, Minimum Standards of Age and Disability Inclusion (ADCAP) and also identified needs, limitations and the structure of rapid assessments. By the end of the training, participants were expected to be able to describe the trends of humanitarian system, the importance of Humanitarian Charta and importance of quality and accountability in emergency response.
The training was lead by Axel Schmidt, Emergency Response and Capacity Building Manager of ASB Indonesia & the Philippines, who was also ASB FAST team member deployed to the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Through the activity, ASB also seeks possibility of future collaboration with local resources to operate humanitarian response, especially in small and medium scale disasters, where international assistance will not be required. By transferring knowledge and capacity, local organisations are empowered to actively support the community, including in emergency situation. Capable local resources in humanitarian response will directly contribute to the nation’s resilience towards disaster. (Rizma Kristiana/edit: Axel Schmidt)
