Without warning, a band of camouflaged militia swooped down on at least 25 people camped beside a pond at Harold Parker State Forest in North Andover on April 28, screaming threats, waving apparent weapons, and demanding that everyone get on the ground, face down. Then, they took four hostages.
HSPH student Melinda Foran (center, in hat) gives an interview during a mock press conference.
"I was surprised by the 'rebel attack' on the first evening," said participant Melinda Foran, a master's student at HSPH in population and international health. "This simulation was a good exercise in developing intuition during difficult situations. These are not events you want to face for the first time and discover that your first instinct is wrong."
The three-day simulation from April 28 to 30 involved an amazingly detailed and inventive scenario. The mock Hurricane Petunia had battered unmercifully the coast of the fictional Republic of Berini, leaving as many as 27,000 dead, 830,000 missing, and 2.8 million displaced.
Enter humanitarian relief agencies-mock versions of the International Federation of the Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children, and the International Rescue Committee. They called upon their "staff," in this case, the 21 participating students.
The simulation was designed to mirror what relief workers encounter all too frequently in real disasters: entering an unfamiliar region; conducting fast assessments of survivors' needs; surveying damage; establishing communications with each other and with the outside world using spotty, crude equipment; delivering health care; and dealing with misinformed or misguided government officials, media, and volunteers.
And like numerous real-life regions in the world, Berini had trouble long before Hurricane Petunia hit. The militia-like "Free Mestizo Movement" had frequently battled the government and had wanted to draw attention to the poor prison conditions in which their captured comrades were kept. The group capitalized on the chaos of the hurricane's aftermath to further their cause, making hostages of relief workers sent to help their country. And that was just the first day of the exercise.
The next day, still rattled from the previous night's "attack and kidnapping" of four of their own, the relief workers gathered at HQ for a press conference with some very pushy media, in actuality a group of high school students from the drama society at North Andover High School. The media peppered the relief workers with questions: how many people were killed by the hurricane, how many survived, what exactly were the NGOs doing, how were they ensuring that donations weren't being misused? Their questions were designed to rattle the most experienced humanitarian relief workers.
The students were surprised during the exercise by a faux militia group that demanded they get out fo their SUV.
Meanwhile, another NGO was distracted by a carload of volunteers from People Out to Obliterate Poverty with Supplies (POOPS). The well-meaning, if misguided, group said that they collected supplies after seeing the hurricane's devastation on TV and had taken it upon themselves-instead of using established channels-to travel to Berini to deliver the goods. The POOPS representatives presented the rather stunned NGO staff with some of what it had collected: pairs of high-heeled shoes, brightly colored ski wear, allergy and nighttime flu remedies, cans of baked beans. The NGO team's unenthusiastic response prompted a POOPS member to charge, "I bet if we were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, you'd be happy to take our supplies."
The relief workers had until 9 a.m. Sunday to come up with their response plans and to develop a coordinated effort for dealing with the disaster. The simulation then ended, and the participants used the rest of Sunday to evaluate the exercise.
William Housworth, MPH student in international Health, thought the simulation taught valuable lessons. "The exercise did a great job of creating the frustration of trying to get something done when everything seems to be working against you," he said.
Fellow MPH student Thomas Weiser said that the most frustrating part of the exercise for him was trying to communicate with his colleagues in the field. "I was coordinating and compiling information at the camp site with news from the field, and everyone always seemed to call all at once," he said. "It was very realistic."
Michael VanRooyen, chief of the Division of International Health and Humanitarian Programs at Brigham and Women's Hospital and co-director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), helped organize and plan the simulation. He explained that his goal was to push students hard, to help them realize how much power they had within themselves in such situations.
HSPH Professor Jennifer Leaning helped plan the simulation.
This is the third year the exercise has been held. Tara Gingerich coordinates the program for HSPH. In addition to VanRooyen, a number of School students, faculty, and alumni helped plan and set up the event, including students Clay Heaton and Stephanie Rosborough, alumna Kirsten Johnson, and HSPH Professor and HHI Co-Director Jennifer Leaning. For more information, call 617-432-4305, email Gingerich, or visit the Humanitarian Studies and Field Practice website.
—PHC
Copyright, 2009, President and Fellows of Harvard College
