The purpose of the training session was to educate Fairfax County employees about appropriate in-kind donations activities for international disaster relief. The CIDI also sought to add willing and interested volunteers to its roster of trained customer care personnel to work with the Center in the event of a major international emergency.

The gathering of professionals was selected from Fairfax County’s Human Resources and Social Services Departments to participate in the training. Armed with valuable experience in working with people from all parts of the globe, this particular group of trainees already had substantial background to become valuable CIDI customer-care volunteers based on their experience working directly with the international community living in Northern Virginia. Trained CIDI volunteers respond to a wide variety of inquiries received by the Center each year from the public and corporations interested in providing humanitarian assistance in the wake of international emergencies.

The CIDI Director presented a phased, participatory demonstration that at its conclusion demonstrated clearly how commonly held misconceptions about international disaster relief are perpetuated, and how and why these poor practices should be not undertaken in the future. The group, which was represented by participants from the United States, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, was very interested to learn that many of the items that constitute appropriate donations for disaster relief within the United States, are not necessarily appropriate for use in emergencies overseas.

At the conclusion of the training session, the participants agreed to share what they had learned about in-kind donations for humanitarian programs with their staff and others. Twelve individuals registered with the CIDI immediately as volunteers, with promises of others at a later date.