See You In Geneva?
From 25-26 October we’ll be at the world’s leading humanitarian aid and disaster relief event in Switzerland, AIDEX. Here’s the lowdown.
AIDEX features high-level conference sessions, workshops, discussion groups, impact sessions, case studies, relief and international development, and training programmes geared to solve the challenges in aid.
The main focus this year will be “Addressing the forgotten crises – how can we manage and anticipate crises when so much of our focus is on Ukraine?”. The conference will shine a light on crises that are obscured by the war in Europe.
Over 4000 delegates have registered, which will make this the biggest event in their history. This will include UN agencies, the EU, Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, local and international NGOs, donors, foundations, private investors, government and the private sector. And of course, us.
What we’ll be doing
We’ll have a stand at the Duty of Care Pavilion, which is hosted by our friends at International Location Safety. This section of the conference aims to offer security managers, HR leaders, programming and operational staff a dedicated space to come together and discuss the challenges, solutions and the future of meeting integrated duty of care obligations and effectively supporting staff to work in challenging environments.
Our CEO LEANNE MAREGA will be there. She says:
I can’t wait to see people in person that I’ve not seen since before the pandemic. And I’m looking forward to being part of the conversation around duty of care. So if you’re going to be there, I’d love to meet with you and learn what you’re doing in your organisation to support your staff to thrive. I’m also excited to co-lead a session on thriving in the midst of challenging work.
LEANNE
The session she will be co-leading is called “Navigating The Impact Of Humanitarian Work: Pathways To Thriving”. In it, our new Psychosocial and Wellbeing Lead BEN PORTER will join Leanne to explore psychosocial risks such as ‘secondary trauma’, ‘moral injury’ and ‘compassion fatigue’, and look at how it is possible to thrive even in impossibly difficult circumstances. Ben says:
Our bodies are constantly absorbing what we see, hear and feel around us. For humanitarian workers, the atmosphere around them can be loaded with confronting and painful stimuli. Our talk will engage the senses of the people in the room, as we notice how our thoughts and feelings are shaped. We’ll then share some helpful and creative ways to frame the difficult experiences encountered in humanitarian work, in a way that can help sustain and deepen us.
BEN
And finally our Head of Client Engagement KATHERINE STICKLAND will also be on hand if you’d like to chat about our work, and yours, and any ways that we might be able to work together. Katherine says:
It’ll be great to meet people in person, connect and exchange ideas. It might be that you’re at the start of establishing a wellbeing policy, or you’ve faced some significant incidents within your organisation, or you want to build on what’s already in place. We love sharing experiences and getting the chance to ask ‘how are you?’ , because leading in this arena can be hard as well as deeply rewarding, and you’re not alone.
KATHERINE
Are you or your team going to be there? if so, do say hello to Leanne, Ben or Katherine!
