DHL disaster response team conducts emergency training in Bahrain

This training is part of the company's Corporate Responsibility programme GoHelp which covers disaster relief and disaster prevention issues.

DRT trainings regularly take place in disaster prone regions worldwide including various exercises like warehouse management, appropriate treatment of sensitive goods like medicine and food, as well as teambuilding and physical tasks to ensure smooth processes under difficult environmental conditions during a deployment.

Guest speakers from the UN provide an insight into their organization and on how to operate effectively with the UN and other disaster relief organizations on the ground.

The aim of the trainings is to ensure a high level of professionalism among the DHL volunteers and excellent performance at airports following natural disasters.

In Bahrain, volunteers from every DHL division including DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding, and DHL Supply Chain participated in the training. Nour Suliman, CEO DHL Express MENA, said, "Preparedness and regular emergency logistics training is critical to keep our members 'deployment-ready'- so that we're able to get the right help to the communities that need it faster and more effectively. This is the ninth DRT training we've conducted in the Middle East in over six years, to train members to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to assist relief efforts during natural disasters."

The team also trained to pack and dispatch so called speedballs, an innovative disaster relief solution designed to deliver aid to inaccessible areas for example in flooded area. The speedballs contain basic supplies like food, water and hygienic articles.

These supplies are packed into DHL courier bags, robust enough to be dropped by aircraft and capable of holding up to 25kg of relief supplies. In 2011, DHL DRT teams processed about 115 tonnes of relief supplies for New Zealand and El Salvador, and packed over 10,500 Speedballs during aid relief efforts around the world, mainly in El Salvador.

In total the DRT consists out of over 400 volunteers worldwide creating a global disaster relief network for vulnerable regions and managed by regional headquarters in Panama, Dubai and Singapore.

The disaster response teams can deploy within 72 hours of activation by the UN and for up to three weeks at a time, with up to 10 employees making up a single DRT. The team provides critical support in the movement of relief supplies covering for example professional warehousing, inventory and preparation of goods for transport to the people in need.

DHL has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with several countries in disaster-prone regions to provide the services of DRTs, allowing governments to request support directly and accelerating DRT deployments. In 2011, El Salvador, Turkey and Chile signed MOUs with DHL and Bangladesh joined the list in 2012.

As part of its GoHelp programme, DHL also runs a disaster preparedness programme called 'Get Airports Ready for Disaster' (GARD) with its partner the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The GARD programme trains airport personnel and staff from disaster management agencies for the logistics challenges posed by natural disasters and their aftermath. It was launched in 2009 and piloted successfully in disaster-prone Indonesia. It has been rolled out in Nepal, Bangladesh Turkey and Lebanon.