RPS Partnership trains 61 national and local journalists in Thailand and Brazil

28 June 2017 - RPS Partnership

RPS Partnership brings you exciting news on its latest projects supporting and training local journalists in South America and Asia.

Our trainers have just returned from Brazil and Thailand, where we have been running hostile environment training for local journalists.

Thailand

Congratulations from RPS Partnership to the 15 freelance journalists from across Asia who have successfully passed a 4 day HEAT course in Bangkok. 

The ACOS Alliance, headed up by Elisabet Cantenys, formerly of Rory Peck, recently identified that freelance journalists working in and around Asia were missing out on valuable Hostile Environment Training (HET/HEAT) training as the only courses currently available were either in UK or USA.

For local journalists, this was too far to travel and too expensive to attend. Elisabet set about to find a way to provide the training. With support from Sarah at the Frontline Freelance Register (FFR) and Nadine Hoffman, at the International Womens' Media Foundation (IWMF), RPS Partnership worked together with IWMF to make this happen.

Just last week 15 people from across Cambodia, Myanmar, Phillipines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam attended our training in Thailand and this vital training took place.

Cath Mossom (RPS Partnership) led the First Aid Training and Jeff Belzil (IWMF) led the  security training, both of which were a fantastic success.

Having a mixed gender training team greatly enhanced the scope and value for the participants, as they got a balanced view from trainers who regularly travel, and work in complex environments  and who field experiences are brought back into the training classroom.

We believe in listening and encouraging participants to speak about their own experiences (both good and bad) so that they can learn from each other; which is is often as important as learning new skills. A really important part of training freelance journalists is helping them to forge and expand friendships and networks, which in turn enhances their future safety when reporting in new environments and opens up new opportunities for them.

On completion of the course the participants were awarded a certificate of attendance and also a EFAW certificate (valid 3 years), certificated to UK standards.

Here are what some of the course participants had to say about the course....

- Great course, please come to Thailand again as there are many more freelancers who could benefit from your knowledge and this experience
- Instructors were kind, informative and very responsive to questions
- All the scenarios were very realistic, challenging, intense but great fun. It made you think and react under pressure – testing your own reactions.
- I enjoyed all aspects of the course, but in particular the medical, as I am now more aware and confident to be able to treat myself or collegues.
- I now have the confidence to do something without panicking and just following others. Thank you.

We thoroughly enjoyed working with the ACOS Alliance and IWMF and look forward to the next time. You can see the ACOS video of the training here. Cath Mossom, our Head of Training is interviewed on her thoughts about the remote trauma training that she teaches.

Brazil

RPS Partnership continues to support national and international news crews in Brazil. RPS Partnership has been working in Brazil since 2012 and are delighted to continually support Globo TV in Brazil with the support of 3 journalist trainers. RPS Partnership ran an intensive train the trainer course in 2012, following a HET course and has since been working with these trainers to provide security and first aid training to local journalists all over Brazil. On this programme, Ryan Swindale, RPS Partnership, together with our three local trainers, were able to train another 46 journalists on two HET programmes, which lasted two days each. What a fantastic result.

We pride ourselves on be able to give good sound advice to everyone when they travel, the RPS Partnership team are always looking at new and safe apps that will enable any organisation to take the duty of care issue seriously.

With the ever increased threats to national journalists, being able to report on breaking news is and will always remain a challenge. The focus on this training programme was on situational awareness; being proactive and stopping a situation from getting out of control. Being able to show empathy during breaking news and understanding the moral dilemmas when faced with a situation that require a different approach were all new subjects which we incorported into the training.

We ensured our Brazilian trainers were ready to teach and ran a three day top up training for them, so they were ready to teach again. We covered several topics; what to do in the field, the cause and effect that may arise from an increased threat. Our training is always experiential and we included a "breaking news story" scenario for which each news crew had to plan and prepare to go on an assignment in order to get a headline story. They had to negotiate and be aware of their surroundings and react to any incidents as and when they arose.

Realistic training with great feedback. Take a look at the photos in our gallery where we used mock favellas for our experiential learning.

We were assisted  in our training by the Brazilian Armed Forces who gave us a fire power demonstration showing the effects of low and high calibre weapons and how journalists can best use cover as well as the types and levels of (PPE) personal protection equipment.

Many of the journalists found this very interesting as it dispelled the Hollywood gun fights and what weapons can and cannot do.

A number of training sessions were spent on medical training. With such a short time for training, we focus on bleeding and breathing.

All the course participants commented that these lessons were so important and enjoyed the way they were delivered. As in all RPS Partnership overseas training each journalist received a trauma bandage and we are encouraging everyone to carry some form of medical equipment when on assignment.

RPS Partnership, along with three very experienced journalists (names protected for security) who are now part of the RPS Partnership trainer mentoring programme, are happy to say we have made a difference to an additional 46 journalists in Brazil. We have empowered them to get the story safely without being the headline themselves!

We always say we are "giving you peace of mind in a challenging world" and hopefully our training projects in Thailand and Brazil have done just that for the national and local journalists we have trained. Take a look here at our gallery of photos in Brazil.

Contact us for more information on our hostile environment training courses , both in the UK and overseas, as well as our train the trainer courses for national and local journalists on [email protected]

Photos: RPS Partnership working with the ACOS Alliance and IWMF in Thailand and RPS Partnership working with Globo TV in Brazil June 2017