Essay

Practice-based learning is quite efficient as it provides us with the knowledge of time and stress management, which play a significant role in the humanitarian field for both aid providers and aid receivers’ safety. According to RedR Australia (2017), It provides the responders with the necessary knowledge of aid work in the modern humanitarian aid process for taking action in any global humanitarian crisis. In the process of humanitarian assistance, practice-based learning provides the workers with a comprehension of the multifaceted nature of the worldwide aid providing framework and the legitimate structure for humanitarian aid and it also presents the attributes of natural disastrous events and human promoted crises and the essential minimum requirement for providing effective humanitarian assistance.

In this intensive practice-based unit I have got a clear and accurate idea of the entire humanitarian aid process. I have gained a more comprehensive knowledge about the code of ethics and how to follow them during any humanitarian crisis as it is an essential element in this field of practice. I also have got the accurate knowledge about ethical dilemmas in this area of work; however, it is a bit challenging for me as there are a lot of arguments and counter-arguments in this case. It provided a broader knowledge of humanitarian principles which are humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. The concept of humanity refers to the priority of human’s life over everything else and all the human should be treated with dignity in any situation (OCHA, 2012). Neutrality is another principle of humanitarian aid filed which means everyone must be treated equally regardless of their gender, cultural background, religion, skin colour, ethical believes, sexual orientation, geographic location or any other factors. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2012), humanitarian aid workers must not take any side for any political parties, specific nations or countries, religious or racial groups, or ideological nature. Humanitarian aid should be carried out depending on the needs to maintain impartiality. Assistance can be prioritised depending on the needs and situation without doing any discrimination. According to The European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (2013), Indecency refers to humanitarian aid provider must have to work independently without any influence from any political, economic military or other objects.

Attending to the introduction to humanitarian practice unit was a fantastic experience for me. Not only me but also all the participates were effectively engaged in the whole intensive training period. The most important thing that I have learned from this session is working as a team to execute the common goal by collaborating with each other. Each day we had different groups with different members which were an excellent opportunity to get to know each other which led us to work with people who got different experiences, skill, and values. It is essential to have good interaction skill as we have to work as team and response as a team in any humanitarian assistance. This practice-based unit helped us to enrich our interaction skills. Pettit, S., & Beresford, A. (2009) stated that one of the critical success factors that shouldn’t be overlooked is having a strong bonding and good communication or interaction between the aid providers in an emergency situation or disaster management filed. This practice-based learning module improved our technical skill as well, like using the radio, nutrition scale, temporary shelter making ability and many more. Before this session, I wouldn't even know how to use a radio in an emergency situation. I would categorise myself as an amateur in terms of using radio, however, after this session, I would like to consider myself as an efficient radio user in the disaster management field. Like as radio this practice session made us efficient regarding using nutrition’s scale, weight tape and more. Another essential factor of humanitarian assistance is site planning, which was very interesting but challenging for me. As we have been divided into three groups and all the groups were given the same task so, we had the pressure of getting the best outcomes and show the most useful result of our teamwork. We have seen a lot of different ideas of site plan which was great in terms of idea sharing skill; however, we have faced challenges in case of coordination. I believe in the real-life field work this is one of the main issues to provide successful humanitarian assistance. According to Stromberg D (2007), finance or other resources are significantly important during the humanitarian aid assistance; however, sometimes maximum desired outcomes cannot be achieved due to lack of well-managed coordination even in the presence of potential resources. There was a lot of different opinion during the site planning session, some were agreed, and some have disagreed. In the site planning session, I have observed a bit argument and counter-argument which is the part of our learning process; however, few of our group members were not very friendly while showing their thoughts and beliefs to the others. Their body language, eye contact, the way of talking was not very approachable which should be avoided or improved. For humanitarian aid worker, physical well-being is also very important as very often the workers need to do physical work like making shelters, providing water and other things. In the most scenarios, those kinds of physical tasks are done by the military as they are more trained and well equipped for doing those things, however, in some cases, armies are not the rightest option depending on the situation and their acceptant in the affected community.

The very end session of this unit was the most intensive part of this whole process. In this session, we had to focus on all the processes and procedures, protocols, rules and regulations, code of ethics, ethical dilemmas, and imitations while providing emergency assistance in the country named Sebedoh. We as Red Heart had the task to closely work with other INGOs to allocate, monitor and order supplies for food and nutrition of the IDPs(internally displaced people) affected by the flood. In this scenario, I have faced a lot of problems which is very realistic in the disaster management filed. As a coordinator of my team, my primary duty was coordinating inside my squad as well as maintaining a good connection with other aid providers like shelter, food, health, wash and others. The toughest challenges that I have faced was, not having proper guidance while Woking in a very different situation and not finding the right resources in the right time. In the most cases in the emergency situation, the humanitarian aid organisations face the challenge of finding their starting point especially if they are very new in that country. At the same time finding the right information is also very difficult as everyone is busy with their won task or responsibilities. It is tough to get the accurate data of affected people, assets and other things as in most of the cases damages can occur in a continuous process. In this circumstance, humanitarian aid originations should have the right assumptions skill from their experience and excellent management expertise. There was some financing problem as well like for few organizations didn’t have enough resources to provide their service which was causing late response not only for them but also for others like the organizations that were supposed to provide logistic support didn’t have enough funding for quick transportation to evacuate the people and provide aid to them. The prices were very high for the supplies as only one company was delivering the goods so, there was no chance to compare or reduce costs. According to Van Wassenhove, L. N. (2006) supply chain management is very essential while providing any aid or assistance; there are some limitations of getting supplies in the local markets with a fair price in an emergency situation that may affect the whole aid providing process. Very few local suppliers can be beneficiary during this emergency situation as those aid providers have to pay the higher price to get the supplies; however, it might affect the entire community or the assistance process as the humanitarian aid organisation might be facing difficulties with their budget and funding (Oloruntoba & Gray, 2006).

In the entire training session, I was very enthusiastic, and every day I was hoping to learn new things. Controlling personal emotion in this field is a significant factor. Most often the humanitarian aid worker faces the nightmare situation of humankind. As they have to serve the most vulnerable people around the world who might be lost their family, might be the children who lost their parents, people who are dead or about to die due to lack of food, dead bodies, badly injured people. So, aid workers must be emotionally and mentally stable. Lischer, S. K. (2015) stated that controlling the emotions is a big challenge for the aid workers in a refugee camp, some of them returns to their home country with mental trauma and in some cases, they won’t be able to go back to their field due this mental trauma in the long run. In this session I have learned how to control our emotion and not to get emotionally attached with the aid receiver for our safety, however, I have found it quite challenging for me and I have lost my controls few times especially when the videos related to Haiti’s earthquake was presented. I have observed some ethical dilemmas which were quite confusing for me as those few things are morally right, but aid workers cannot execute them due to rules and regulation, bounding and code of ethics.

Despite of few existing limitations in this humanitarian practice of field, it is a great opportunity for me to serve the humanity. After doing this unit my career goal is more crystal clear and I have a proper idea about my working field. I firmly believe this practice-based leaning unit made us more capable of working in this field professionally. It has made us more conscious about following the code of ethics during the humanitarian assistance and after doing this unit, I can handle the ethical dilemmas more efficiently in this filed. The most amazing experience of doing this training unit was being a successful part of good teamwork and get the maximum outcomes by using the limited resources within a very short period of time.

References:

Bagshaw, S. (2012). Humanitarian principles. Retrieved from OCHA website: https://www.unocha.org/sites/dms/Documents/OOM-humanitarianprinciples_eng_June12.pdf

Cruz, H. R. (2013). Humanitarian principles - European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations - European Commission. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/echo/who/humanitarian-aid-and-civil-protection/humanitarian-principles_en

RedR Australia. (2017). ESSENTIALS OF HUMANITARIAN PRACTICE. Retrieved from https://www.redr.org.au/training/humanitarian-training/our-courses/essentials-of-humanitarian-practice/

Strömberg, D. (2007). Natural disasters, economic development, and humanitarian aid. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21(3), 199-222.

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