The 9th Disaster Management Camp (DMC-9), organised by Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) under the patronage of the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), was visited by HE the Assistant Foreign Minister Lolwah bint Rashid AlKhater.
She and the accompanying delegation were received by QRCS CEO Faisal Mohamed al-Emadi, DMC-9 head Hussein Aman al-Ali and deputy head Mohamed Rashid al-Marri.
In her speech during the general morning meeting, AlKhater praised the high-quality and professional work done for the participants from 15 countries, both in terms of training and diverse scenarios in health, relief, shelter, and other sectors.
“I would like to thank QRCS for their wonderful efforts, evidently manifested in the recent tragedy of Turkiye-Syria earthquake,” she stated. AlKhater toured the camp, watched the teams performing their training activities, greeted both the trainees and trainers, urged them to continue to pursue this career, and commended their genuine willingness to help those in need.
During the morning training, the Green Team attended a lecture on water, sanitation, and hygiene. They discussed the Sphere standards and specifications of water sources; how to store, purify, use, and test water; disposal of human waste, waste water, and garbage; and promotion of hygiene.
The practical part involved setting up emergency toilets, installing the Kit-5 water unit, and used the hygiene kit.
On Saturday evening, the Neutrality Group attended a lecture on the media and communications in emergencies, delivered by the trainers Farid Adnan Jarrad from QRCS and Majid Munir Al-Huwayik from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The Humanitarian Tent hosted a lecture entitled “The Impact of Armed Conflicts on Humanitarian Action”, presented by Dr Ghassan Kahlout, director of the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS) and head of the MSc in Conflict Management and Humanitarian Action programme at Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.
The trainees implemented a simulation scenario in response to a gas pipeline explosion in a residential building, which caused a collapse and fire. As the authorities concerned intervened to control the fire, the homeless victims were evacuated by QRCS to a makeshift shelter center at the Abdullah bin Ali Al-Misnad Preparatory School for Boys. There were separate places for men and other places for women and children. The relief providers referred the injured people to the medical clinic, accommodated the others to the shelter, distributed water bottles and meals, and provided psychological support for traumatised victims.
The whole operation was monitored audio-visually by the operations room at DMC-9. QRCS and Al Fazaa personnel worked together to control some cases of unrest. In the final evaluation, the performance of all the teams was announced “better than expected”.
