Contact: Leah Barbour
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Because of a significant and immediate need for international humanitarian assistance, Mississippi State University leaders will postpone the Joint Humanitarian Operations Course initially scheduled for Aug. 16 and 17.
Officials with the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance sponsor and provide instruction for the JHOC workshop, but they've been called to support USAID's foreign disaster response across the globe, said Judith Phillips, research associate with MSU's John C. Stennis Institute of Government and Community Development.
In approximately two weeks, organizers from the Stennis Institute, host of the workshop, will coordinate with USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, the Mississippi National Guard, and leaders at Mississippi State University's Air Force and Army ROTC programs to reschedule the workshop, she said.
USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance created the Joint Humanitarian Operations Course to prepare U.S. military leaders to work collaboratively with host nations, U.N. agencies and other international and non-governmental organizations during humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations.
"The personnel who were scheduled to conduct the JHOC workshop at MSU have been called upon to respond to pressing needs for international humanitarian disaster assistance," Phillips said. "Our work with USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, and our planning with the Mississippi National Guard and Mississippi State University's ROTC programs has increased our awareness of the importance of the JHOC program, and we look forward to rescheduling the workshop at MSU.
"In fact, due to the overwhelmingly positive response, we completely filled the workshop originally scheduled for August 16th and 17th and had been in discussion with USAID/ OFDA to offer a second workshop in the spring."
USAID offers students and other professionals numerous opportunities for international involvement, Phillips emphasized.
For more information about the Stennis Institute, visit www.sig.msstate.edu.
MSU is online at www.msstate.edu.