TRAINING U.N.R.R.A.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 50, 20 February 1945, Page 7

TRAINING U.N.R.R.A.

SELECTING THE PERSONNEL

In preparation for Unrra's gigantic task of administering reli<A' to tlie war stricken peoples of Europe as they are liberated over 800 skilled recruits from Government and voluntary agencies have entered, the Unrra Training Centre at the University of Maryland. Ncav trainees are now entering the Centre at the rate of :i() and 10 per week with a similar number leaving. Tn view of the uncertainty regarding the assignment of trainees to work in any specified country the emphasis is upon preparation for work anywhere in Europe. The training cenI tres do not provide technical in-. J structioiv since Unrra workers iire expected already to possess technical training and but they do give a general orientation to the Unrra Programme and back, ground material on the areas in which the staff will operate.

Languages Important Instruction is. given in several languages including French, SerboG reek Russian Italian and German. Classes' in other languages will be added later to meet the needs of persons Avhose assignments are likely to take them into specific areas, of Europe. Britain Trains

As a segue] to the preparation for pre armistice relief service which societies such a.s the British Red Cross and Order of St. John, Society of I-riends, Girl Guides ancl others -have undertaken over the last three years lor some thousands of volunteers, an Unrra training centre has also been established at Reading. In the Middle East 000 Balkan mission .personnel from the U.K. and U.S.A. have been given an orientation programme both at Maadi and Cairo before assignment to duty until the way opens in Greece and other countries has been in practical work in the Middle East in refugee camps known as Greek, Yugoslav or Polish "tent cities" of the desert with a total population of -KMMX). A training camp for the. Far East will ultimately be set up at Chungking. Meantime, some 50 Chinese experts have gone to America for training. Self-Sacrificial Work CORSO (the N..Z. Council of Organisations for Relief Service Overseas) is receiving indications of a lack of knowledge as to the rigorous and self-sacrificial nature of relief work. Relief workers will be called upon, to nurse disease to guard against epidemics', to handle unresponsive children who have long since lost touch with tlieir parents; and to feed correctly, thousands of them who ai-e undernourished and perhaps, suffering from softening of rackets and other deficiency diseases; to undertake sanitary work to organis-e communal life in large refugee transit camps which includes large scale, cooking of a type of food to which one may not. be accustomed. The cultural and recreational activities of camps are often the most important—the cheering and entertaining of refugees. Specialist qualifications organising powers gift of improvisation linguistic talent, ability to rough it under hard, monotonous conditions where often no word of. thanks> is proffered—all these things are necessities but not enough. Those, who go out to relieve the suffering of the starving the diseased and the uprooted and to bring healing to sick minds and racked sou-Is must have a gift for service and something that one can only call charity—not in its debased sense, but in its original and dynamic meaning. New Zealand's; First Canxp With the encouragement of Corso the Girl Guides' Association have just held a commando or "hard-liv-ing" camp in Hawke's Bay, under the experienced leadership of. Miss Mona Burgin, Dominion Commissioner for Guide Camping and Training. The thirty campers of ages from 21 to 45 came from all walks of life and from all parts of the Dominion. Living under canvas, they adapted themselves. to cooking for- large numbers over an open fire, by camp ovens, and lvayas well as learning how to use dehydrated foods; to tramp carrying their equipment and bedding on their backs; and generally to toughen and fit themselves for a strenuous life fraught with monotony, i'atigue 5 dangers and difficulties. Lectures were given on camp sanitation by a Health Inspector; on map-reading by a Home Guards,r man; axemanship and the care of tools by a Scouter; and experts among the campers shared their knowledge in organised camp-fire talks. Special features comprised an over night hike finishing with an emergency casualty which called for first-aid attention; and on another day the handling of an unknown number of refugees.