In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, like the earthquake in Haiti, the need to communicate is immense. From the search for loved ones, to coordination of humanitarian relief, to simple messages of “I’m alive,” between family members.
In fact, Secretary Clinton mentioned the three highest proprieties for the US government efforts will be communications, electricity, and transportation.
But much of the telecom infrastructure in and around Port-au-Prince was severely damaged or destroyed by the earthquake. And the resulting information vacuum is hampering vital emergency relief operations and recovery efforts.
Into this gap, several ICT solutions are arriving:
- Ushahidi’s crisis mapping is identifying places of need
- The Inventorisation Wiki and Sahana are coordinating relief efforts online
- Inveneo will be bringing Internet connectivity to local NGOs
Establishing networks like these are a cornerstone of good disaster relief, and will support additional ICT infrastructure and facilitate long-term ICT capacity building and reconstruction. Yet the task is not easy.
Just to send two staff and equipment, Inveneo worked through the weekend to prepare:
Learn more about Inveneo’s response, by subscribing to their RSS, Twitter, or Facebook feeds.
As Michael Downey points out, the group Télécoms Sans Frontières is on the ground in Haiti with at least two communication centers.
More here: http://www.tsfi.org/index.php