Testimonials
What our clients say:
“I had been living in Afghanistan, working for an NGO for about three years before I took the Armadillo training. Those three years were fraught with adventures that no one really wants to have, including walking through a minefield, being kicked off a public bus and forced to hitchhike through the Solang pass to Kabul, being assaulted by a man in the street, and having a very traumatic medical evacuation which left me recuperating in the States for a year. I believe that each one of these “misadventures” could have been avoided had I taken the Armadillo course before. The trainers were amazing, and the material covered a myriad of possible events. Though it is impossible to prepare for every scenario, they had enough experience between them to guide us through as many potential dangers as we could imagine. I would recommend this course to anyone planning on working in Afghanistan, even short term!”
Iraq:
“When the armed gunmen broke into my house and attacked my family and me I remembered everything that Michelle and Rob told me about what to do. It saved our lives.”
“The training went very well and was a huge help to us here on the ground in Sudan…Armadillo sent two very excellent trainers that went above and beyond …they even supported us on a security incident with our organization outside of training hours. Very impressed and would recommend to anyone.”
“The training really made awesome impact and I’d recommend it anytime again as a base team.
The instructor was very knowledgeable and had a good way of presenting the information. He brought up some very good points about getting the community on side and using your allies to help with any problems that you may be having with an actor. The idea of letting the community know from the outset, when you will be setting up, what you will be doing, when you will be leaving, what you will be leaving behind and what you will be taking with you will be very helpful when we set up in a new community.
As for the theoretical portion, I thought it was spot on. It is the same structure of the security management model that we use, so it was good to have our guys go through a more detailed analysis of it. Also I really appreciate the emphasis that they put on gaining acceptance as that is our best strategy.
Very good style of delivery of teaching – addressed needs of audience as a whole who were multicultural and with very varied backgrounds. Teaching was clear, easy to follow, with good use of repetition. Excellent scenarios at the end, really good to put things into practice that we had learned. Relaxed and friendly atmosphere, I felt able to ask questions and when I did I felt the answers were really helpful.
I really enjoyed the training and learned a lot. Our base is meeting next weekend to discuss which issues to be addressed as a priority following this training.”
We recently worked with an international NGO’s team in Gaza. When the team was given an employee satisfaction survey afterwards, almost all of them commented that the security updates made them feel safer and more cared for by their employers. Soon after the organisation installed new window bars, there was an attempted break-in at the office, and it was unsuccessful because of the bars.