Establishing Telecommunications Centers to Aid Disaster Relief Efforts
From Shareideas
Télécoms sans Frontières is able to establish emergency telecommunications centers in just 48 hours to aid disaster victims -- connecting those in need of help with family members, medical care, and emergency assistance.
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For those in need of food, water, shelter, and/or medical help during or following a violent conflict or natural disaster, communication can be lifesaving. To help meet the communications needs of disaster victims, Télécoms sans Frontières (TSF), a humanitarian organization, is able to dispatch telecom experts anywhere in the world within 48 hours of a catastrophe.
After the Asian tsunami, for example, TSF immediately deployed to Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia to strengthen relief efforts and to offer the possibility to survivors to contact a loved one abroad to give news and to request personalized assistance. In Indonesia, TSF installed a satellite based telecom centre in Meulaboh and in Banda Aceh to the benefit of more than 160 NGOs and UN agencies. In the three countries, TSF also directly supported more than 10,000 families. On most emergencies where TSF deploys all communication networks have been disrupted or destroyed and TSF therefore uses satellite technology. In Sri Lanka, however, TSF was able to use the GSM network as it had been rapidly reestablished.
TSF teams are equipped to set up a telecommunications center at the heart of a disaster or conflict. The centers provide UN, NGO, and government responders with reliable voice, Internet, fax, and video connections using satellite, WiFi, and GSM equipment. With such communications capacity, relief workers can assess local needs and coordinate logistics. For those who are isolated and have access to cellular phones, the Centers enable them to reach out to loved ones and request help from those who can provide it.
TSF teams, staffed largely by volunteers, generally remain in the area for a month until more permanent satelllite and other communications are established. Since its founding in 1998, TSF has sent teams to 45 countries on 55 aid missions.
Since mid-2006, TSF teams have been deployed four times to assist the UN in addressing the needs of victims of torrential flooding in Suriname, a massive earthquake in Indonesia, violent conflict in Lebanon, and displaced persons in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
How it was done
The idea for Télécoms Sans Frontières was the result of a simple observation made after many years’ experience with general humanitarian charities, based on listening to those in need. During missions responding to the crisis in the Balkans and in Kurdistan during the 1st Gulf War, TSF’s founders realized that, in addition to medical and food aid, there was a critical need for reliable emergency telecommunications services. Conflicts and emergencies often led to massive civilian displacement and separated families. And affected populations are often left with no communications infrastructure in place to find assistance and loved ones.
During early missions, TSF’s founders were often approached by refugees with scraps of paper asking them, for example: “When you go home, please call my family at this number, tell them I’m alive, uncle has been killed but I’m alive and I’m at the refugee camp in Stenkovac.” To address the need for communications services, TSF bought its first satellite phone and the organization was born. Since this time, on every TSF mission we have offered a three-minute call to any affected family.
TSF soon found that the international response teams that deploy to emergencies also had a critical need for reliable telecommunications services in the first days after an emergency. TSF therefore expanded its operations, improved its technology, and began to establish rapidly deployable emergency telecommunications centers to serve UN, government, and NGO humanitarian workers, and developed a reputation for being among the first to arrive after disasters.
Today, TSF is supported by some of the biggest companies of the telecoms industry. The Vodafone Group Foundation has been actively supporting TSF since 2002.
