Humanitarian, Disaster and Emergency Management

With a growing need for specialists in humanitarian aid, but faced with COVID-19 border closures, Mujiburrahman made the tough decision to leave his family at home in Indonesia to return to Australia and finish his PhD in humanitarian, emergency and disaster management. 

After a challenging childhood in the Philippines, Lloyd wanted to dedicate his life to helping people in need. He found a way to do that through a degree in humanitarian aid at CDU. 

Meet the emergency services veteran who, at 80, went to university to consolidate a lifetime of on-the-job learning and help shape the future direction of emergency management. 

We have all seen the images of war on our television screens. What happens when, inevitably, the guns fall silent and the blades are returned to their sheaths? When the red mist recedes, and some form of non-violent rationality raises its weary head above the bloodied parapets.

In her final year of a Bachelor of Humanitarian and Community Studies, Stephanie completed a student placement with the Red Cross in Timor-Leste. She reflects on the placement – and dissects why it was such a formative personal, professional, and academic experience.

As the humanitarian aid and disaster management sector evolves, keeping up with best practice and new ways of responding to crises has never been more important. That’s exactly why Emma Kettle chose to return to uni to take on a postgraduate degree in Humanitarian, Disaster and Emergency Management.

Cecilia wants a career helping people, so she’s studying a Bachelor of Humanitarian and Community Studies at CDU. After traveling for a while and spending some time working with children, she’s upped the ante and is completing her degree so she’s prepared to work with refugees and special migrants.

Meet Esther Canmue. A refugee herself, she’s passionate about providing support for new refugees arriving in Australia. She’s investing in her career by studying a Bachelor of Humanitarian and Community Studies at CDU – while working full time as a refugee and asylum seeker support worker and raising a family. 

Is being vulnerable to the forces of nature entirely due to our social, economic and political decisions? This is a question Dr Jonatan Lassa, a senior lecturer in Humanitarian, Emergency and Disaster Management at CDU, explores in his research and teaching.