Volunteers host training day in Milton Keynes to cope with chaos of humanitarian crisis

A group of about 60 people spent a day attending a training exercise at the Caldecotte Xperience in the city.

Bucks-based humanitarian charity MapAction was busy running the disaster simulation exercise.

The exercise was designed to recreate the chaotic atmosphere of a complex humanitarian emergency with health, food, water and sanitation insecurity in the fictional, war-torn country of Albia.

The aim of the exercise was to help MapAction’s highly skilled mapping volunteers practice different aspects of their vital work of helping to get the right help to the right people in the aftermath of a disaster.

MapAction’s work is supported by Prince Harry, a patron of the charity.

The Milton Keynes exercise is MapAction’s biggest training event of the year and involves people from a number of organisations, including Milton Keynes NHS Hospital Trust, Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Save the Children.

Among those attending was Tim Parkins, station commander of Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue, who joined a briefing with MapAction volunteers as part of the exercise.