The Health Emergencies in Large Populations (HELP) course is offered by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in joint collaboration with PAHO/WHO and the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. For more than 20 years, the HELP course, initiated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),  has offered humanitarian workers an intensive training experience in public health principles and disaster epidemiology. The course was founded based on the need for humanitarian workers to acquire a holistic understanding of the needs of refugees, internally displaced persons, and others affected by natural disasters and conflict in order more effectively manage health crises in emergency settings.

The goal of HELP is to create an understanding of the public health needs of populations in disaster and conflict situations. This includes the background, underlying causes, and the dynamics that cause populations to be vulnerable in emergencies. Topics covered during the course include disaster management, food security and nutrition, environmental health, health and surveillance systems, humanitarian ethics, human rights and human security, conflict origins, and security for aid workers.

HELP includes on-site lectures with the sector’s leading practitioners and academics. Through in-class assignments and group exercises, participants gain important skills necessary for humanitarian response, including skills in epidemiological methods and management of health emergencies.

The HELP course is typically offered twice per year, two weeks in January (virtual) and in July (in-person). The in-person course is held at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, USA where instruction takes place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for the duration of the course.

All healthcare and public health professionals working in large-scale health emergencies and humanitarian assistance should consider attending the course.

Previous participants have come from a variety of civil society, governmental, and private organizations and include nurses, physicians, nutritionists, public health professionals and humanitarian aid workers focused on health in humanitarian emergencies.

You can now apply for the course in July 2024 (but be quick). This course will run from 15-26 July 2024. Those who want to attend and are working for a national humanitarian NGO can receive a discount on the course fees. Please contact JHSPH.HelpCour@jhu.edu for any questions related to this course.

Further details can be found on here or on http://hopkinshumanitarianhealth.org/education/help-course/

Warm regards, Mija Ververs