Humanitarian operations have evolved over the past decades with the inception of new terminologies, standards and guidelines, the advent of multiple actors, emerging policy changes, and new threats sparked by contestation over resources and climate aberrations. The multiple developments in the humanitarian landscape entail periodical dissemination at the grassroots level, especially to those who are engaged in humanitarian relief and assistance. Caritas India strongly values community-led actions which are strongly grounded on the rights-based approach and is an active proponent of the localization of aid, partnership and capacity strengthening.

A three-day Emergency Response Support Team training was conducted in Guwahati between 15th to 17th February 2021, to prepare partners in handling the future humanitarian crisis. The State experiences regular floods, earthquake, storms and landslide beside man-made disasters. The programme was designed to equip them with the necessary skills required to do their job along with their ability to link between the various stages involved in disaster management and humanitarian response while adopting the broader quality and accountability measures. A total of 23 participants belonging to 10 districts of Assam attended the program which was mostly classroom-based coupled with role play and table-top simulations. Most of the participants had a preliminary experience of humanitarian relief work, among which some had previously volunteered in Caritas India’s Emergency Response Programmes.

The sessions were facilitated by both in-house trainers and external resource persons and focussed on the concept of ‘learning by doing’. The initial sessions focus on familiarizing the participants with basic concepts and terminologies along with introducing them to the various stakeholders and actors associated with humanitarian response and disaster risk reduction programmes. This was followed by elaborate sessions on practical skills required in the early response phase especially conducting a needs assessment, collecting situation reports, coordinating relief distributions, facilitating smooth phaseout and path to early recovery. Through a series of group activities, participants were acquainted with community entrance techniques, conducting interviews and FGDs, prioritizing life-saving needs, data enumeration and recording of complaints and feedback. The participants also learnt about the principles and standards aimed at improving the quality and accountability of humanitarian responses.

The final sessions of the training program focused on immediate assistance such as basic first aid and light rescue operations during disaster and accidents. The session on First Aid was facilitated by a representative from the Indian Red Cross Society, Assam Branch- Mr. Raj Sharma, Programme Manager while the session on Search & Rescue was conducted by a team from State Disaster Response Force and Civil Defence.

The training and formation of the Emergency Response Support Team is an active medium to build the field skills of grassroot humanitarian workers, to an effective level. Caritas India aims to incorporate such trainings further to address the gaps in its humanitarian response work and develop the skill sets of the vast repository of human resources at the community level who don the role of ‘First Responders’ in an emergency.