Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues (RISC) trains freelance conflict journalists in lifesaving techniques to help them treat their wounds, and those of others around them, while on assignment in dangerous areas. RISC provides each graduate of its three-day course in Battlefield First Aid with a comprehensive medical pack to carry with them out into the field.
Freelance journalists comprise the vast majority of reporters on the front lines of wars and other dangerous conflicts around the world today, and consequently make up the vast majority of journalist deaths and injuries. While staff reporters are often provided emergency medical training by their employers, most freelancers have not received any training before heading into a conflict zone. As journalists often travel together in groups, this lack of training puts many lives at risk.
We train and equip freelance journalists to treat life-threatening injuries on the battlefield - their own and those of the people around them. Surviving a gunshot or shrapnel wound is often a matter of doing the right thing in the first few minutes, and RISC's training focuses on that brief, critical period of time. Each of our trainees leaves the course with the knowledge gained from the training as well as a comprehensive medical pack to carry with them in conflict zones.
The death of a conflict journalist affects us all - these are the people who bring depth to our understanding of government repression, of revolutions, of drug wars and brutal militias. Several prominent, dedicated war reporters have been killed in the past few years alone. Our training prevents unnecessary journalist injuries and deaths in conflict zones, allowing independent reporters to continue bringing reliable news to the rest of the world from dangerous areas.
