MERCY Malaysia Trains 34 Somalian Student Volunteers on Humanitarian Standards

25 August 2011– MERCY Malaysia trained a group of 34 Somalian students yesterday through its Volunteer Induction Programme at the MERCY Malaysia headquarters in Kompleks Dayabumi, Kuala Lumpur, in preparation for the possibility of engaging them as translators in future missions to Somalia.

MERCY Malaysia President, Dato’ Dr. Ahmad Faizal Mohd Perdaus said that the pressure to perform to expectations has grown, as humanitarian action has become more public through international media coverage.

“It is very important for us to train our representatives - staff as well as volunteers - to understand the demands of international humanitarian standards governing our work. NGOs have to deliver increasingly complex service in increasingly difficult environments, and without such training, we may not be able to deliver our relief efforts in the best way possible,” he said.

“Among the standards that we adhere to includes the Code of Conduct for International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief, which outlines ten articles of core humanitarian principles required for humanitarian response and development work,” he said, adding that MERCY Malaysia has recently secured a re-certification from Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) International after a rigorous auditing process earlier this March.

After the training, one of the participants, a 27-year-old Somalian volunteer student, Mr. Yasir Mohamed Ahmed–Baffo will be serving as a translator as part of the needs assessment team to be deployed to Mogadishu later today, led by MERCY Malaysia Vice President, Assoc Prof Dr Mohamed Ikram Mohamed Salleh, together with the Head of Relief Operations, Mr. Hew Cheong Yew.

Concerned individuals and organisations can donate to the MERCY Malaysia Somalia Relief Fund through the following bank accounts:

MAYBANK (account name: MERCY HUMANITARIAN FUND, account number: 5621-7950-4126, ABA Swift Code: MBBEMYKLA), or
CIMB Bank (account name: MERCY Malaysia, account number: 1424-000-6561053, ABA Swift Code: CIBBMYKL).

Donations via cheque are payable to MERCY MALAYSIA