2024 PQMD Collaboration & Learning Forum

Today's Emcee: Trina Newcomb, Medical Teams International 

Fundamentals of Humanitarian Logistics (Facilitation by: Airlink)
This interactive session will offer participants an opportunity to learn about the requirements and key considerations for moving aid cargo by air to international programs. Looking at aid mobilization through the lens of an emergency scenario, participants engage directly with shipping documentation, cargo preparation, and arrangement of in-country receiving requirements in order to get donated goods onsite quickly following a disaster. This session is geared towards NGO members and Corporate members that routinely work in disaster response as a tool in building logistics capacity and assessing current or partner capabilities. Participants will walk away from this session with a deeper understanding of the documentation required to dispatch aid (whether procured or donated) to program sites using air freight, access to templates and guidance on preparing cargo for shipment by air, and a list of considerations for important consignee vetting to ensure shipments arrive where and when they are needed.

Mental Health & Resilience Training for Frontline Workers (Facilitation by: Project HOPE)
The Mental Health and Resilience Training program was originally designed for frontline healthcare workers and has been adapted to provide PQMD members knowledge, tools, techniques and practical guidance on building resilience, self-care and how to support themselves and others in times of crises. It will push participants to think about operationalizing mental wellbeing and advocating for organizational mental health practical initiatives. This training will provide insight into what humanitarian staff, emergency response volunteers, and frontline workers are faced with and provide helpful tools on how to support our own mental wellbeing and wellbeing of peers / personnel. The session will cover the continuum of stress; warning signs and responses to stress; common effects of stress on frontline workers; self-care techniques and skill building techniques to aid our teams through self care, support and assessments.

Operationalizing Climate Action – A Primer (Facilitation by: International Medical Corps)
The humanitarian sector is in the era of incorporating climate action into our programs and across our pursuits. In many of the geographic areas targeted by interventions led by PQMD’s members, larger numbers of people are likely to be severely affected by increases in water-borne and vector-borne diseases. The scientific consensus anticipates increases in the frequency and intensity of floods, extreme heat, wildfires and droughts, as well as increases in the intensity of tropical storms and the complexity and overlapping of disasters occurring simultaneously. Recognizing the profound threat that climate change poses to the communities with which our members work, this workshop will provide a high-level road map for how organizations, and the companies they partner with, can develop, implement and resource a multi-pronged approach to address the impacts of climate change – ultimately to better support the communities served as they adapt to changing healthcare needs in a hotter and more dangerous world. The session will cover areas such as: development of internal buy-in and working groups; measuring climate impact; program strategies for adaptation; capacity strengthening for local partners; and explore tools to measure the environmental impact of our own activities.