After the July war in 2006, Lebanon had many lessons to be learned and among those lessons was disaster preparedness and coping mechanisms. A thorough assessment identified needs on the community level and was validated further with community volunteers, and Lebanese Red Cross. It was realized that all stakeholders had no knowledge of the Sphere standards and limited or no knowledge on emergency preparedness and response. Therefore, it was decided that a Sphere training program designed to build capacities of the local community on emergency preparedness and response including Sphere Standards, risk assessments and disaster mitigation was needed to respond to any emergency in the country.

The trainings was designed for 3 days covering the following topics:

The trainings covered all areas in Lebanon from the North down to the South making sure that this opportunity is accessible to all. Audience targeted were the Lebanese Red Cross, Emergency Response Community Groups, and volunteers. Five Sphere trainers conducted the training across Lebanon covering a total of 410 beneficiaries in the different target areas.

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Ghassan Akkary
World Vision Lebanon
Program Officer/Public Health specialist
' Office +961 (4) 401980/1 ext.37
' Fax: +961 (4) 401982
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http://lebanon.worldvision.org