A First In Pakistan, As Dart Centre Asia Pacific Conducts Training

The Dart Centre Asia Pacific facilitated a five-day training session for 11 media professionals in Pakistan, tailored to help the participants train other reporters on ways to deal with stress and trauma they encounter in their work. On behalf of Internews, the first-of-its-kind workshop in Pakistan taught psychological safety in hazardous environments. Names, dates and the location of the workshop were not made public due to safety concerns.

“This really is a world first,” said Dart Centre Asia Pacific managing director, Cait McMahon, who led the training, alongside Pakistani psychiatrist Dr. Unaiza Niaz. “These media professionals will now take what they have learnt and adapt it culturally, combining the physical and psychological elements and train journalists in high need areas of Pakistan. They are now world leaders in a new and exciting model of psychological and physical safety training.”

The course was tailored to suit the needs of reporters covering high stress events, and included strategies and information created especially for journalism models. The program skilled the participants in understanding the basic science of psychological trauma and taught very pragmatic techniques of managing extreme stress in the face of potentially traumatic events, such as ones that these journalists encounter in their work. The course gained high praise from participants who will now carry the work forward, with translated materials, to journalists working in the hazardous regions of Pakistan.