Season Greetings

I'm wishing all my friends all over the world a Merry Christmas and

a Happy New Year!

Photo: Kerstin Persson, Sweden

ACT Rapid Support Team

The members of the ACT Rapid Support Team Roster met for a training in Geneva, Switzerland, 2-4 November 2009. www.act-intl.org/news.php?uid=729

Back in Sweden again

Since a couple of weeks I'm back home in Sweden again.

I've very much enjoyed the first class training and want to give my gratidude to our eminent facilitators Else, Kathy and Anna. I also very much enjoyed the place where we stayed, Lukenya Getaway, www.lukenyagetaway.com. We had it all and we didn´t have to bother about practicalities. It was comfortable and the food was just great and the whole setting was beautiful in the midst of the savannah, still very close to the large city of Nairobi.

On our last evening of the training we were invited to a fantastic bush dinner. The staff at Lukenya hade arranged a fantastic party in the African darkness with an environment with fires, torches, good grilled food and last but not least a very entertaining Kenyan band, Kenya Fiesta Band. It was a party to remember dancing with those who had become close friends during ten days of tough training.

I'm back to my normal duties in Sweden but keeping in contact with terrible disasters happening in different parts of the world through ACT International, www.act-intl.org

After four days in Kenya

We are in the midst of the training and I enjoy every moment. Even though it is hard work, getting to know a new group and whole the time having instant challenges.

We are in the savanna just south east of Nairobi and it's an enjoyable surrounding with giraffes, zebras, gazelles and wild beasts.

We are 16 in the group with three facilitators. We are a gender balanced group that come from Kenya, Malawi, Sweden, Norway, Somalia, United Kingdom, Indonesia and the USA. It is a pilot training of becoming good professional MHPSS-trainers (Menthal Health and Psychosocial Services).

We follow all the standards and guide lines of UN and other the leading humanitarian aid organisations of the world. We work very practical with lectures, group work, exercises, role plays and simulations. We work as a tight group giving each other feed back and support in becoming more professional.

We work during long days but we also have a few breaks. Saturday morning many of us went to a couple of markets in Nairobi and it was interesting being part of a busy city life for a couple of hours.

Late this afternoon we went on a hike exploring the nature and we saw some wild beasts. I enjoy every minute of being here and I enjoy being back in Africa, my home continent. I also enjoy being a member of an international group of very skilled and qualified experts ready at any time to respond to large and complex emergencies.

It started ten years ago

Sitting waiting for a flight in Amsterdam I thougt that actually it started ten years ago. How Kathy and I started working with community-based psychosocial support. It was in Albania in March 1999 and we were part of the ACT International Emergency Response to receive refugees from the ongoing war in Kosovo.

We met, got organized with an international and local staff. It was a hectic time. The refugees come into Albania by the thousands a day and nigth. All traumatized by the atrocities in their homeland. We organized relief and humanitarian aid in camps and we were very active in working with a holistic approach. We got the refugees involved in everything from getting water, sanitation, shelter, food, education, sports, activities for children, women and men. Young as old. In one of the refugee camps we even had a caf'e and theatre.

It was fun, it was constructive but it was very tough work and several months later the kosovoalbanians could return back home.

From our work in Albania Kathy, and I learned a lot with others. And what we learned we developed into models of psychosocial support with others, models that now can be used all over the world. One of our work was a field guide http://svenskakyrkan.se/psychosocialservices.

Packed and ready to go

I'm ready to go to Kenya. I have packed all my belongings and working eqiupment. Everything should be there. Routine sometimes makes it easy but also can be of ignorance forgetting important things.

It's going to be exited to meet colleauges from all over the world. Some I know well, some not so much and some will be new experiences to learn.

On my way to Kenya

This week I will be heading for Kenya, for a ten day training of specialist trainers in communitybased psychosocial support. The 16 participants of the training are a group of skilled persons from all over the world.

The aim of the training is to develop the training skills as well as the knowledge in Menthal Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) and ultimately combining these two aspect in becoming an improved MHPSS-trainer.

ACT Rapid Support Team

Since July I'm a proud member of ACT Rapid Support Team Roster. ACT International, www.act-intl.org, is a global alliance of churches and related agencis working to save lives and support communities in emergencies worldwide.

The purpose of the ACT Rapid Support Team, www.act-intl.org/news.php?uid=729, is to support and assist members of the ACT International alliance in implempenting a rapid, timely, gender-sensitive and effective emergency response in the first weeks and months following an emergency.