humanitarian Médecins sans frontières inaugurated this Wednesday its new training site on 10,000 m2, near Bordeaux-Mérignac airport
On the 10,000 m2 site, internal training will be provided by the NGO. — E.Provenzano
- On Wednesday, the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) inaugurated a training center near its logistics site in Gironde, near Bordeaux-Mérignac airport.
- It allows teams to be trained internally. of the NGO on various aspects and in particular logistics by offering them conditions close to the field.
- Already 500 people have been trained on the site in 2021 and this figure will increase.
Training its teams in real conditions before their departure to areas of conflict or affected by natural disasters is the objective of the NGO M&decins Sans Frontières; inaugurated this Wednesday its Jacques Pinel training center at; Mérignac, near Bordeaux. The 10,000 m2 site is close to the MSF logistics platform, inaugurated in 2015 and strategically positioned at proximity from Bordeaux Mérignac airport.
The opening of the training center, delayed by the Covid-19 epidemic, only took place at fall 2021. “It’s the first training center in France, there are other platforms but not as complete, explains Mélissa Blum, responsible for this new structure. We have 60 beds, 80 catering places, four plenary training rooms and seven technical training rooms with platforms built as in the field, to learn how to do it. set up a hospital in from scratch.”
Some 500 people from MSF teams around the world have been formed in 2021. “We thought for a while that the site was oversized, but it“s already there. victim of its own success, comments Thierry Allafort-Duverger, Director General of MSF France. Lately, we had to arbitrate between different formations.”
“A pond as a teaching tool”
The center offers a variety of training (in the medical, paramedical, pharmacy, logistics, supply, administration, purchasing, human resources, etc.) sectors intended for humanitarian professions, going from one to two weeks maximum. To enable the teams to be as operational as possible, many simulation exercises are offered on the logistics side. “We have a pond which is an educational tool to learn how to do it. making drinking water for mobile clinics”, explains M”lissa Blum. A huge hangar simulates, for example, the assembly of an operating block. Several other technical equipment such as solar panels, borehole, water tower, waste treatment area, latrines, etc.. are being upgraded. available to trainees.
A telecoms room also allows you to train for your skills. turn on the electricity in place in a hospital because the teams sometimes arrive in areas where there is nothing. In the mechanical workshop sits the famous MSF 4X4 and side the “school frame”. Some are trained in repair the most common breakdowns on the machine, still equipped with very few electronics, so as not to find yourself stranded once on a mission.
“”The” The opening of this center makes sense because MSF Logistics also has a training mission and that of providing its expertise to the field teams so that they can improve their responses to the populations with whom they work. , says Laurent Sury, General Director of MSF Logistique. We can thus establish a link with the places of intervention, which is not always easy.” On the site, an innovation component also exists with, for example, at the moment, a test on solar panels.
This new center has been; funded by private donations.