in college i took courses on SAR, wild eatables, orienteering, first aid.

more recently: wilderness first aid (thru the red cross).

never attended a survival school. would like to attend one by ray mears, but that's just a dream.

Not to hijack, but this thread revived an old question I've never found the answer to: Do news organizations and international companies send their foreign correspondents/executives through any specialized threat avoidance, E&E, or survival training? If so, which one(s)?

I don't know about news or international companies. However my SO did NGO aide work in Africa for some years . On every deployment she went, there was not such an actual survival school training from a bush-craft view, as much as it was very thorough safety and security training. The topics touched on survival aspects such as what to do when facing armed people, what to to when kidnapped, map reading and navigation for E&E purposes, first aid, basic local language skills etc. Almost all the people who instructed the training had former specialized military backgrounds.

All this training came in handy for my SO when her aide group got caught up in the Rwandan Genocide in the mid 1990's along the Zaire/Rwanda border. That situation swiftly became extremely dangerous. The aide group she was with, escaped out of there with barely any food water or other supplies and made their way back to Europe then home about 2 weeks later.

As I mentioned here before, my SO is going back to Africa (Dec. 8th) for another NGO deployment for 6-8 months and the security concerns for aide workers is even more paramount then years ago. Without going into detail for security reasons, the aide group she will be working with has some very extensive and more up to date training that she and others will be put through before they reach their deployment area in Africa.

Teslinhiker, all the best to your SO in her humanitarian work. One of my partners has a daughter who does similar work in Africa . He sweats bullets about her safety! If its ultimately consistent with her safety and security, I hope you can tell us more about the course content. Are you or her sponsoring organization providing an individual E&E kit? Do you have a content list that you can share? Urban emergency kits (different in content by about 50% than she would need) are a particular interest of mine. I recently posted my kit contents in the Urban Forum. Besides exercising good sense, having locals' support and an evac plan, I think U S Dollars are the best survival tool in a getaway situation.

Sweating bullets is a vast understatement for me...However my SO has quite a bit of previous experience over there so that will hopefully help alleviate my concerns. She also has years of remote outdoors experience and is very comfortable in many types of environments which will serve her well. Situational awareness, knowing the local area, people and customs can go a long way in ensuring any persons'safety no matter if it is a 3rd world country in Africa or in North America.

As for the E&E kit, the organization supplies basic things but we will be building up a more comprehensive kit before she leaves. She has a good idea of what she needs based on previous trips over there. However the kit will be a lot more modernized as compared to what gear and technology was available in the late 1980's to mid 1990's which is the last time she went over. Interestingly, the kit contents are not all that much different then many posted here for travel in remote environments.

Your thoughts on carrying US dollars or other currencies is a double edged coin...no pun intended. Over in those depressed countries, having money to bribe, grease the skids etc can also be a liability as the locals always assume that if you already x amount for dollars for payoffs, that you must have much more. This can lead to some situations that can go south very fast. That said, carrying some money, being careful and very discrete about it can help in certain situations.

In regards to security, much is very specific to the area / work that she and others will involved in and I would rather not get into details. However if anyone is interested, the ICRC (International Committee of the RED Cross) has a very comprehensive publication titled "STAYING ALIVE. Safety and security guidelines for humanitarian volunteers in conflict areas." This publication though a bit dated is still considered one of the better (aside from the goofy drawings throughout it) that delves into aid worker security training and best practices. The publication which was last revised in 2005 can be download as a PDF file from many websites.

Not me ... BUT i really wish I'd done Ron Hood's class while he was on this Earth. Great guy.

Pete2

Informally - lots of lessons with my dad, grandpa and uber outdoorsman cousin. Formally, through Scouts Canada, as a leader prepping to share knowledge with my Scouts. And also various first aid courses since high school, including wilderness first aid.

I would love to go to an accredited survival school someday, but for now, content myself with Scouts, watching videos on You Tube and then practicing on my own or with my kiddo every chance I get.

Not in definition. but lots of other training Wilderness EMT, LifeGuarding, Outward Bound, tons of first hand "out there" experiential education by being placed in the wilderness and needing to improvise one way or another. I think if you are attune to this stuff anyway you grasp alot of it. The military has lots of schools with differing mission appropriate "bents", but nothing like that in my military backround, just basic, and NCO School. A lot of it is the mental end of things, the old Kurt Hahn (Outward Bound founder) realizaton that old seaman faired much better surviving than younger more fit mariner's due to just being "hardened". This has been put in practice all around the world in settings to teach some degree of endurance and mental preparedness that "this too shall pass". The trick for much of this is to create "subjective" (safe)dangers that folks have to work through, experience to become a little more hardened, and resourceful. Even BUD School (SEALS) uses a model like this, to totally max out the canidates to see if they will "washout", once they are thru that there is a strong likelyhood not much will faze them physically, and usually mentally. Though BUD School the dangers are much more objective (drowning, etc..)

Some urban areas have Clubs that have Schools or training sessions for this sort of stuff, Seattle Mountaineers (also Spokane sub-group), Pittsburgh Explorers Club, just to name a few. Check with local outdoor stores to see if there are any such groups in your areas. The collective experience of some of these groups can be AMAZING. Be careful though, you may meet your future spouse there (it happened to me)

Ironwood

I was lucky enough to camp with Ron, Karen and Jesse (their son) twice. The second trip he spent a whole evening telling ghost stories around the campfire to my daughters and his son. The man was amazing.

RonHood by merriwether, on Flickr

Those times were the closest I've come to taking a survival class.
-Blast