Melanie DeKlerk was awarded a grant to obtain hostile environment and first aid training. Melanie is the assignment editor for Global National News in Canada. She was Global’s liaison with the Canadian Military in Afghanistan for six years before becoming embedded on base in Kandahar where she field produced stories on the closing of Canada’s historic combat mission and produced the first live blog in a war zone. Most recently she was in Myanmar working on stories about the rapid changes in the country.