Personal Security Training

Anne Rimmer, Front Line's Training Coordinator, explained the organisation's plan to concentrate on the expressed needs of HRDs, and on training trainers. Front Line will focus specifically on the needs of women HRDs and LGBTI HRDs; documentation of violations; and assistance to HRDs working in intolerant environments (where registration obstacles and financial harassment are common).

Wojtek Bogusz, Front Line's IT Security Coordinator, presented the "NGO in a Box", a programme developed by Front Line and Tactical Technology, and announced that an advanced version would be available in 2008. He emphasised that, as digital technology continues to progress, HRDs will be confronted with many new risks as well as opportunities to strengthen their work. Following this Gabriel Bombambo, Front Line's IT Support Consultant in DRC, described the work Front Line has been doing in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where hundreds of HRDs have been trained in computer and digital skills despite huge technical obstacles - including lack of machines, low technical literacy, vulnerability to viruses, and expensive and unreliable internet access.