The International...

Sharing the expertise to multiply the impact
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 Aug 07, 2009 

By Pamela Swithin

SINGAPORE – Southern Baptists have developed, through decades of experience all over the world, great expertise in community development and disaster relief. Now that expertise – and its potential impact – is being multiplied by a new Baptist Global Response training project.

The International Relief and Development Training Initiative, which is based out of BGR's Singapore headquarters, offers training in the principles and techniques of community development and disaster relief. The workshops – which have been conducted five times since June – are intended to empower other groups to effectively connect people who care with people in need.

Baptist Global Response seeks to demonstrate God's compassion by helping people experience the kind of full and meaningful life that inspires them to raise their families in confidence, build their communities with dignity and share this life with others. It responds to people with critical needs in the areas of food security, health crises and threats to their quality of life – needs that may arise from acute events like disasters or from chronic threats like endemic hunger and extreme poverty.

The initiative was developed in response to requests from both Christian churches and ministry groups and secular organizations, like Singapore’s Economic Development Board, said Jeff Palmer, executive director of Baptist Global Response.

"The timing is right and the need is there for a holistic training program that is flexible enough to serve the church as well as secular organizations," Palmer said. "The training initiative allows us to be strategically placed as an equipping and connecting resource for individuals and organizations interested in more effective and efficient relief and development approaches.

"Singapore is an ideal location for an initiative like this," Palmer added. "It is easily accessible for people wanting to be trained and a great jumping-off point for relief and development opportunities in a part of the world where such efforts are desperately needed."

The project currently is being funded by Baptist Global Response and focused on sending trainees into nearby areas of Asia, but Palmer expects that in time it will be completely self-sustaining and have a global impact.

"The idea is to have a training program with minimum infrastructure and maximum output in terms of number and types of training," Palmer said. "In the future, we will see resources coming from the Singaporean community, and others will help with payments for training and consultation services. We also believe that grants and donations will be provided by groups and individuals who see the need for this kind of training."

The program’s initial focus will be to train and equip Singaporeans, who are becoming more and more involved in relief and development projects, Palmer said. Eventually, however, he envisions training thousands of other partners in holistic relief and development techniques – addressing the spiritual dimensions of relief, as well as the physical. One of the initiative’s goals is to produce, in three to five years, at least 10 key partners who are highly trained to effectively equip and mobilize others for relief and development work.

"The training initiative we have started in Singapore has tremendous potential impact for Baptist Global Response work around the world," Palmer said. "Seeing the initial response of Singaporeans and other nationalities to the training initiative has been exciting. The bottom line is that this new program will influence the strategies of, and increase the number of, relief and development partners working worldwide."

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Pamela Swithin is a collegiate correspondent for Baptist Global Response. For information about giving to help people in need, visit the BGR Giving page.

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