Hazardous Environment Awareness Training (HEAT)

DRC’s HEAT is a personal safety training in which participants will learn how to identify potential threats and adopt risk mitigation measures for reducing the likelihood of encountering local threats and the impact should a threat-related event occur. This course is designed for participants coming from a wide range of backgrounds with varied levels of experience for travel to hazardous and insecure contexts.

Course elements:

• Safety Risk Management and Tools
• Personal Safety – Mitigation and Response to Threats
• Radio and Phone Communications
• Travel, Convoy & Vehicle Safety
• Driving in Hostile Environments
• Coping with Capture
• Inter-personal Communication and Negotiation
• Mine and UXO Awareness
• Basic Trauma Management
• Mental Health and Wellbeing

HEAT is conducted in both a conference room setting and in field conditions including presentations, discussions, and simulation-based exercises. Participants should be ready to spend time outdoors in the prevailing weather conditions, move on foot for shorter distances in terrain, jump in and out of vehicles, dive for cover, and encounter stressful situations under the guidance and support of the course instructors.

We expect participants to be ready to start the course on the first day early in the morning and finish on the last day late in the afternoon, therefore we recommend that the participant arrives to the location of the course the day before and leave the day after.