February 2006
This event proved to be extremely popular, attracting more than 130 participants over 4 days.

It was good to be able to return to Freetown after 2 years and to build on the good experiences we had back in 2004. This time round we were able to learn a great deal from the trainees about the driving conditions which they experience on a day to day basis as well as gaining invaluable feedback from them on matters such as vehicle maintenance, fleet management and accessories among others.

The key objective which we had in mind when we were planning this event was that we would try to attract key personnel from each agency and provide them with training and information which would not just benefit them but which could also be passed on by them to their teams – in other words, we would try to train the trainers.

The programme followed a similar format to the one used in recent TGS training seminars in Europe

• Brief introduction to TGS and the TGS training team,
• Briefing on vehicle safety ( including defensive driving, road safety, driver training, environmental impact )
• Convoy driving
• Vehicle familiarisation, basic maintenance and daily health checks
• Vehicle recovery techniques
• 4x4-driving techniques

We were very fortunate to be able to count on the assistance of the Irish NGO Concern who offered a great deal of practical and logistical support to the event.

Thanks must go to all of the international NGOs and UN agencies who, through their participation and contributions in terms of personnel and vehicles, helped make this event such an overwhelming success.