Following the devastating impact on St Maarten of two consecutive hurricanes, Irma and Maria in 2017, the Netherlands Red Cross and St Maarten Branch launched recovery and relief efforts. A mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) assessment was conducted in June 2018 that highlighted a number of gaps, needs, and opportunities. Strengthening the capacity of community-based organizations was identified as a need. The Red Cross decided to commission the collaboration with local professionals as one of the strategies to strengthen local capacity in training, skills, and knowledge of MHPSS in disasters. This was the starting point of collaboration between Inspired and the Red Cross organization of St. Maarten and the Netherlands. This resulted in the design and delivery of a two-day training ‘Psychosocial Support in Disasters’ for the K1 DIRECT team, together with a Dutch Red Cross MPHPSS delegate. In the following years, a similar training has also been given by the team of Inspired to the Red Cross volunteers from the St. Maarten, Saba, and St. Eustatius branches to support the team in being able to Look, Listen and Link!
Inspired 