Knowledge

Talks with trauma experts and experienced sport development workers produced a shortlist of a few things that must be part of a thorough preparation:

• Knowledge of culture and context, especially through personal conversations with people who have been in the area where the new recruit is going to work
• Knowledge about trauma, both in terms of theoretical knowledge and in terms of knowing how to deal with it. A role play is an excellent method of preparing sport development workers for this. For instance: have a controlled role play of a situation in which extremely aggressive behaviour occurs
• Knowledge about the stakeholders in the project and other agencies in the direct environment and the possibilities of referral
• Knowledge about the role sport plays and the risks sport may carry for people who may have a trauma

From the field

'We have had about ten days of preparation, organised by the project. The problem was that so many teams were there, who were being sent to vastly different parts of the world. And really, some nice area in Tanzania is not the same as the place where we were. So everything was done in general terms. For instance: how do you handle culture shock? Well, there are many different culture shocks. A real preparation, about traumatised children who do not want to give their names and say nothing at all, these were things that we rarely talked about.

There should be more knowledge and preparation, more contact with people who have already been in the area where you will work. I think that is much more useful than just having someone reel off a story. When dealing with things like culture shock, homesickness, I'd rather talk with someone who has field experience who can tell how he started out and what the problems were and what you can expect'. (Jo Verhaegen)

Simple idea

'A good preparation: knowledge of the country and the people who live their and talks with colleagues who have already worked there, these are very important. You can also think of people who have worked in similar situations, even though it is in a different place. There is little professional information about sport development work but this is also important. I am not sure how important it is to know a lot about traumas, this depends very much on your objectives. It is useful to have some basic knowledge about it. It can also help clarify things if you know that you, as a sport development worker, go through certain phases as well, certainly in the way you relate to your work. Sometimes even a very simple idea can be of help: feel comfortable with feeling uncomfortable'. (Anneke van drimmelen)