Reaching Out to the Community and to the World
 Managing Disasters
The world’s great humanitarian crises are a tangle of social, political, and economic factors. The genocide in Darfur, Sudan, for example, is a scenario fueled by massive poverty and state-sponsored ethnic cleansing. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was a blend of shortsighted planning, racial division, and the lack of an efficient, coordinated response. Yet, though the causes may vary, all humanitarian emergencies have certain common elements, says Monica Onyango, an instructor in Boston University’s International Health Program. “Whether it is war or famine, when large numbers of people are displaced there are basic needs—food, water, shelter, medicine.”
Onyango, who served as a relief worker in Africa before completing a master’s degree in Public Health at BU in 2000, has used her firsthand experience to design and teach a 12-week intensive course called Managing Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Emergencies. The course provides a broad look at the management of relief efforts in the wake of natural and man-made disasters. From understanding human rights law and learning to write grants, to gaining a solid grasp of epidemiology and acquiring techniques for land-mine removal—the program gives students an opportunity to learn from leading experts in the field. The course also examines the complex coordination required between large, bureaucratic relief organizations. “Most of our instructors are professionals who have worked in conflict situations worldwide, including the Balkans, Afghanistan, the Congo, Sudan, and Liberia,” Onyango said.
 Other schools such as Harvard, Columbia, and Tulane offer courses in international public health, but few, if any, take the intensive, hands-on approach that her course does, she continues. Students work for six hours a day on assignments ranging from case studies to role-playing. Experts in the field teach specific portions of the course. CDC researchers, for example, teach the epidemiology sections of the course; FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) representatives discuss emergency response coordination. News reports, white papers, and policy analyses are incorporated to keep coursework current. “The goal is to provide students, many of whom have no international experience, with the background needed to work in an international, humanitarian setting,” said Onyango. Graduates have gone on to serve as aid workers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and in the refugee camps of Darfur.
The hands-on focus of the course is perhaps best illustrated in an exercise held this past April in collaboration with the American Red Cross to organize a mock refugee camp. Onyango says she approached the Red Cross after attending a mock emergency event in Boston’s Back Bay last year. Complete with medical and resettlement tents, feeding center, field latrines, and visitors playing the roles of displaced civilians, the mock camp immersed the participants in the experience of an unfolding humanitarian crisis. Students played the roles of representatives from various NGOs and were responsible for setting up the camp, coordinating services, and processing refugees.
The objective of this first camp was to re-create a camp similar to the ones found in Darfur, says Jirair Ratevosian, an International Public Health student. “No matter how much you learn in the classroom, you are never prepared for the complexity of these situations,” said Ratevosian, who plans to attend medical school after graduating this year. “This hands-on, immersive experience will definitely help me with my future work in medicine.”
Despite minor logistical issues, such as whether the camp should be held indoors or outdoors next year, Onyango agreed with Ratevosian. “The goal of the mock camp is to give students as genuine an experience as possible. Learning like this cannot be accomplished by books alone,” she said.
—by Jeremy Miller |
