Our Responder Recovery Center will be a first-of-its-kind refuge space, set in the serene jungles of Costa Rica. The Refuge Project
Humanitarian Aid Worker Community Support and Training
What
The Refuge Project focuses on supporting the needs of the international disaster responder and humanitarian aid worker community. This community interacts with a wide variety of people, cultures and environments and has an enormous impact around the world. In an effort to support this community The Refuge Project will be focusing on some of the needs that are either not being addressed or are difficult to address: the need to have access to a physical community while not deployed in the field, various types of material and psychological support and training in essential skills. Why
“There is nothing that can prepare you for the moment you have a gun to your head or the days and weeks after. There is nothing that can prepare you for how it will feel to have a child die in your arms, to see people living and dying in misery, to see bodies lining the streets, to hear thousands beg for help and not have enough for everyone. There is no information session or manual that can tell you how that will feel or when or how it will hit you. The debriefing sessions aren’t enough a lot of the time and we [aid workers] end up just trying to talk it out with each other but we aren’t qualified therapists, we just do what we can to support each other when it feels like too much.” - Olivia Westguard, relief worker in Central America after Hurricane Mitch
This is one of the core reasons for starting The Refuge Project. The impact of doing the work for humanitarian aid and disaster response workers ranges from casual reaction to lasting PTSD response. In support of the population who give so much to help others in need we are establishing a community space that will offer a place to go where the experience of deploying as a humanitarian aid or disaster response worker is understood and the effects are addressed. There are a variety of ways people deal with the experience of humanitarian and disaster work. The Refuge Project will have a few specific options such as a community location, counseling, further skills training and local outreach and group activity while also providing space for people to discover and pursue different individual pathways and facilitate those options where we can. There is no one right way for a person to react or process. A further goal is to create a repeatable model for making a refuge. As of 2013 a study posted on Reliefweb.int estimated the number of relief and humanitarian aid workers in the field was 450,000 with trends in humanitarian aid work suggesting it will only increase. It is not feasible for a single refuge site to care for the number of those workers who could benefit from a refuge site. The hope is that other sites will be started as they are needed and the funds and people are available to run them. How
The first and most important way we are supporting humanitarian aid workers and responders is to establish a safe community location for people to go for the various types of support and if desired a home base to operate out of. [Article]This also creates the central location for the other aspects of the project to take place. Many people find themselves alone when attempting to deal with the effect of the work and it can be extremely challenging to find the needed help. We are collaborating with the International Trauma Treatment Center to have trauma therapists at the site when available. In addition to establishing a place where people can feel understood and there is available trauma psych support if needed or wanted we are also establishing the security of knowing that it’s there if needed. And this doesn’t just help when people can get to or contact the site; when people have to set their reactions aside and deal with the challenges without this support for a time it is really helpful knowing that support is available and can soon be accessed. Another aspect of the refuge is training in the skills that are needed in relief or disaster setting. These include various levels of medical response, logistics, utilities interface, construction and safe demolition techniques and a variety of small group management skills as well as hopefully training in various of types of equipment. Further training goals once the Project has been established are to work with Search & Rescue and Medical Response groups that are called in immediately for disaster relief and with their input create a training program to train the perfect volunteer to arrive alongside them and hit the ground running. The program would offer training in logistics and administration as well as base layout for different types of groups and hopefully heavy equipment training and certification. The goal is to have people who can do anything that needs to be done in a relief effort or disaster response, addressing the needs of the situation from the day one response crews to the longer term needs of ongoing operations. It would also be a great bonus if people spent some time doing response work then return to work qualified for a good paying job from all the skills picked up from training and experience in humanitarian aid work or responding to disasters. We are also working with Darrin Coldiron from Veterans Community Response. Darrin leads retreats for combat veterans to help with PTSD management. He is working with several vets who are having difficulty with a “lack of mission” and he is looking to help them transition into disaster response. This would be a valuable group not only for the skills military training brings to the community it would also be adding useful people to the population of humanitarian and disaster responders. there is a big problem with veterans and suicide, we have been losing on average one veteran an hour to it, so if this problem can be helped and is also adding to the skilled population of responders then we are dedicated to making it happen. Where
The current location search is going to be in the southwestern coastal area of Costa Rica in the general area of the town of Uvita. There are a few reasons for this location. The country of Costa Rica is very welcoming to international travelers and the goal is to have this project accessible to an international population. Costa Rica is a good combination of a well developed infrastructure and remote locations free from the pressures of high density populations. The existing resources around what is available both in materials for building and training and also available skilled local trainers and help are fantastic. The country is easy to get around and has a wide variety of both local activities and beautiful environments to explore outside of the project grounds. The people in Costa Rica are very used to travelers from around the world. Specifically the location of the search is both lush jungle and accessible roadways and small towns with a few larger towns in easy reach. I will also be looking at the eastern costal region however as of right now the current research and past interactions have shown there are a few social and travel reasons why it is a little less appealing as a project site. The current ideal site will be between 12 and 20 acres of useable land within a 2 mile distance of the beach, closer being preferable. When
As of the 14th of February 2016 the active search for locations will begin with the project director in Costa Rica and looking at local possibilities. Current goals are to have a location in progress to ownership or reliable usability by mid-summer and in progress as a functional site as a refuge by the end of 2016. If those things happen at a faster pace we are ready to begin operation as soon as the site is available with aspects of the project coming on line as they are ready.
