Organization: Open Briefing
Registration deadline: 24 Apr 2017
Starting date: 30 Apr 2017
Ending date: 05 May 2017
Open Briefing's accredited Hostile Environment, Remote Environment and First Aid Training (HEREFAT) course for humanitarians gives students the skills that they need to work safely and confidently in challenging situations.
Using workshops, demonstrations and realistic outdoor scenarios, our five-day course will teach you the importance of risk assessments and a security mindset, and train you to recognise and avoid threats to your safety and security as well as how to respond quickly and effectively should a security or medical incident occur. Commonly known as HEAT or HEFAT training, our unique HEREFAT course also includes important instruction in survival and outdoor living skills, which is essential for those working in remote or austere environments.
Although this course includes classroom sessions and workshops, the focus is on scenario-based training, which will provide you with genuine experiential learning by immersing you in the training and offers important opportunities for feedback and reflection. We incorporate the lessons learned from past NGO security incidents, and our syllabus conforms to the reference curriculum drawn up by the European Interagency Security Forum (up to Level 1C, personal security in violent environments).
Course content
1) NGO security essentials
Risk assessments and risk mitigation
Country intelligence
Situational awareness
Incident reporting
The security triangle: Acceptance, deterrence and protection
Hibernation, relocation and evacuation
Sexual assault awareness
Terrorism and political violence
Crime
2) First aid
The 4Bs: Breathing, bleeding, breaks and burns
Catastrophic bleeding
Basic CPR
Environmental illness and injury (e.g. heat exhaustion, heat stroke, frostbite and hypothermia)
Vomiting, diarrhoea and dehydration
Health and hygiene in the field
First aid kits and improvisation
3) Building security
Office security
Residential security
Fire
4) Safe movement
Convoy procedures (SOPs)
Checkpoint procedures (SOPs)
Vehicle safety
Crowds, mobs and demonstrations
5) Weapons and explosives
Indirect and direct fire
Shelling
Improvised explosive devices (IEDs), unexploded ordnance (UXOs) and landmines
Weapons familiarisation and safety (including pistol, AK-47 and RPG)
Understanding and using body armour
Surviving an active shooter
6) Kidnap awareness and hostage survival
Resilience and stress management
Conflict management and de-escalation
Principles of self-defence
What to expect and how to act in a rescue
Differing government responses
7) Communications
Radio and sat phone basics
Comms procedures
Information security
8) Survival and resilience
Principles of survival
Survival psychology
Wilderness survival skills (including food, water, shelter, fire, navigation and rescue)
Urban survival principles
Grab bags
This residential course is physically and mentally demanding. You will work long days, and spend a considerable amount of time outdoors in all weathers. However, our instructors are there to facilitate your learning and ensure your comfort and safety. Accommodation and facilities are basic but comfortable, and mimic what you might find in the field, including a dormitory, tents and improvised shelters, in order to provide an immersive experience. The food is simple but plentiful, and often cooked over an open fire. As a reward, the final evening offers students the opportunity for a hearty meal and a few drinks with the instructors at a traditional Cornish inn!
We will shortly be accrediting this course, after which students passing the practical and written assessments will receive a NCFE Level 3 Award in Personal Security in Hostile and Remote Environments. The course includes a full day of first aid training, and students passing a short written test will also gain a Level 2 Certificate in Outdoor First Aid valid for three years.
Our HEREFAT course has been developed in collaboration with the team at Survival Wisdom. Our instructors are all former armed forces personnel with extensive civilian experience delivering training for NGO workers and journalists. Many of them are former senior instructors at the world-class Defence Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Extraction (SERE) Training Organisation at RAF St Mawgan. We use both male and female instructors on this course.
The course is run at Survival Wisdom’s 865-acre training site in Mount Edgcumbe Country Park on the Rame Peninsula in southeast Cornwall, where we also have exclusive civilian use of the Royal Navy’s training centre at Pier Cellars. The site is easily reachable by train or car from central London. Direct flights from 40 European locations, including London, Paris and Geneva, land at Exeter International Airport, which is one hour by train, car or taxi from Mount Edgcumbe.
About Open Briefing
Open Briefing is a groundbreaking non-profit organisation that provides low-cost, high-impact intelligence, security, training and equipment services to organisations and individuals striving for social and environmental justice and protecting vulnerable communities, particularly those working in or on fragile and conflict-affected states or under repressive regimes.
How to register:
Please visit https://www.openbriefing.org/blog/hostile-environment-awareness-training-300417/ to register your interest in this course and we will contact you shortly.