Help students from low-income backgrounds access advanced humanitarianism training

The humanitarian aid sector has seen a 66% rise in the death and injury of its workers in recent years, and we've decided to do something about it.

We are a group of postgraduate students, studying in the Humanitarianism and Conflict Response Institute at The University of Manchester. In response to the rising risks of humanitarian aid work and the lack of practical skills available academically to deal with this we are collaborating with the organisation Sector-3 to develop and run a comprehensive safety and security course. We want all students on our course to be able to have the opportunity to take part, and develop practical skills essential to their safety in their future career.

The course will cover a wide range of issues and will be taught by an award-winning and experienced team of experts. In one intensive week, we will learn skills such as land and maritime-based search & rescue, advanced medical first aid, personal  and group security, and  deployment. We will also be taught how to notice and cope with the long term effects of hostile work environments.

This course will be enormously interesting but more importantly will  equip us as future humanitarian aid workers with the skills we might need to save our own lives or the lives of those we are working with. This is the first course of this kind to be run and the first to take place at The University of Manchester. It is also the first to be run  at an enormous discount. Given that courses of this kind are normally priced at £1800 a head; we have managed to secure it for £500 per student. While this is an amazing offer, it remains unattainable for some of the students from low-income backgrounds.

We need your help to make sure this incredible opportunity is open to all of our classmates. We are hoping to crowdfund places for four students who otherwise would not be able to access it. If this pilot scheme is successful, we hope it will continue to run and grow in size in future years, reaching more and more future aid workers as they enter the field.

Any money raised will be split equally among the four students being supported and used only to contribute towards (or hopefully fully fund) their course fees.

For more information about the course content and Sector-3 see: https://sites.google.com/sector-3.org/sector-3/home or contact either wwt@williamwthomson.co.uk or polly.08@live.com

Photo credit - Palestinian, International and Israeli activists protesting Israel's security Wall. - Protesters fleeing stun and gas grenades. Bilin, West Bank, Palestine. Image by William W Thomson.