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Kidnap survivors to headline RedR Security Week
Two aid workers who survived a fourteen-month abduction in Chechnya are set to headline RedR’s annual Security training Week next month.
Jon James and Camilla Carr – who were taken hostage by rebels while working to set up a rehabilitation centre for traumatised war-children in 1997 – will facilitate a day-long workshop dealing with how to survive one of the toughest ordeals a humanitarian worker can face: kidnap.
During their extended capture, Jon and Camilla experienced everything from the threat of execution, rape and mental torture to moments of compassion and kindness. They survived through Tai Chi, meditation, humour, and creating a dialogue with their captors. They were finally released in 1998.
In today’s humanitarian environment, threats to aid worker safety and security are on the rise. In 2010 alone, 242 people were killed, injured or kidnapped in the field. Between 2008 and 2010, an average of one aid worker lost their life each week. The risks, particularly over the last decade, have risen dramatically.
In recent months, four aid workers have been kidnapped in Pakistan and, as yet, remain unaccounted for. Two Spanish aid workers taken from Dadaab camp, Kenya, in late 2011 are both still missing. And increasingly, aid organisations are facing the threat of legal action from staff who feel ill-prepared to meet the security challenges of humanitarian aid delivery in the field.
The abduction and kidnap session, which includes the latest advice on Hostile Observation Awareness, is part of a week of safety and security training to be run by experienced RedR experts and high profile speakers.
A total of five day-long sessions will cover everything from an introduction to legal liability for aid organisations, including ‘Duty of Care’ and the law of negligence, to gender and security, maximising the security of technology systems, psychological first aid and response to stress.
The training will be held at RedR’s offices in Vauxhall, London.
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