Under the supervision of instructors Uruguayan of naval contingent (URUMAR), 21 young Haitian police officers undergo intensive training to the trade of Coastguard for 5 weeks at a naval base of Killick, in the Haitian capital.

"This is a refresher course," said Carlos Lima, Captain. "We train them on our own boats, which differ little from their own, then it will be the experience of navigation, and finally the knowledge of their coastline which will make them even more competent."

The selected students for this course have already been trained in advance internally within the Haitian coast guard and with a detachment of the Canadian UN Police (UNPOL).

This course, combining theory and practice, places particular emphasis on the training of coastguards in the fields of marine survival, knowledge of maritime laws, regulations to respect for the boardings and control of emergency maneuvers.

The five instructors from URUMAR contingent in charge of all courses speak French in order to get messages across in the most clear way possible to their students. "For me, it is very important to make me understand of my Haitian students and I do not want the language barrier is a handicap for the instruction, even if we do more efforts on practice than on the theory," said Lieutenant Commander Delgado.

Instructors wishing among other make of the students themselves of trainers. "When a student has assimilated a course correctly, we refer him to give that same course to its comrades, under our control," said Captain Delgado. "So, on leaving the course, when they will be trained, they will be able to teach courses independently."

HL/ HaitiLibre