Tech for Change
Hosted by the United Nations Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, the "Tech for Change" blog shares insight and experiences from the frontlines of innovative mobile technology use in support of United Nations and other humanitarian work worldwide.
Tuesday 23 September 2008, 6:30 PM
Help for Haiti: Calling for Relief
By Oisin Walton
I am among the two teams of Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) emergency telecommunications specialists who deployed to Haiti as it was hit by four cyclones--Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike--all in less than a month. TSF's teams deployed from bases in Nicaragua and in France to support communications both among humanitarian relief workers, and for Haitians who had been driven from their homes by flood waters.
The hub of humanitarian relief efforts in Haiti is in Gonaives, a northern city that has been mostly destroyed by the hurricanes. Local authorities estimate that as many nearly 56,000 families have been affected by the cyclones, and living conditions here are extremely difficult.
Although water levels in Gonaives' streets have lowered, mud has taken over. Gonaives is surrounded by hills devastated by deforestation, triggering mudslides that pour into the city. Daily storms make removing mud from homes and roads impossible, and aid agencies fear the stagnating water will spread diseases if it is not removed quickly.
Haitians forced from their homes by the storms are now crowded into schools, churches or hospitals that have been converted into temporary shelters, even while these buildings also have been affected by the storms. In other instances those left homeless are staying with family or friends. Our driver, for example, has been sheltering 20 people in his house for more than 2 weeks.
I am on the TSF team that is running a 'humanitarian calling operation' that provides affected populations with free, 3-minute phone calls to reconnect with loved ones. Since we launched our operation two days ago, it has been a tremendous success. Already more than 500 families were able to contact a loved one to ask for money or just give news to their family for the first time since the cyclones.
Each day, the TSF team providing calls for the local population travels from shelter to shelter, reaching on average 2 shelters per day. We use both satellite and mobile phones--satellite phones for international calls, and mobile for domestic ones. Access to satellite phones is very important since 80% of calls being placed go abroad--of those calls, 90% are to the United States, mainly to Florida but also to New York, Boston, Washington or Kansas.
Today, a 53-year old woman was able to call her father in Miami for the first time since the disaster. She thanked us because even if her father wasn't able to send any money they were both very happy to give news. "It was so good to hear his voice. You gave me 3 minutes of happiness," she said before leaving. Later, a man cried after calling his wife in Boston.
The Western Union office here has now reopened, making TSF's calls even more important as people will now be able to arrange money transfers. The Haitian Diaspora is indeed a huge source of revenue for many families living in Gonaives.
Normally, a 3-minute call from Haiti would cost around 135 gourdes. To put that in context, a cup of rice here (people don't count in kilos or in pounds but in "cups") costs 35 gourdes. For a population devastated by the food crisis and then these storms, access to TSF's phone lines may mean not only moments of comfort connecting with loved ones, but possibly also a lifeline to friends or family who could send money.
TSF's calling operations should last another 10 days depending on the needs. Our deployment to Haiti--which also includes telecommunications support for United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) teams, as well as for relief workers with UNICEF and NGOs such as Médecins Sans Frontières and the Spanish Red Cross--is supported by partners including the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO), and the UN Foundation and Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, which supports the use of emergency communications for disaster relief.
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Oisin Walton is head of communications and international relations for Télécoms Sans Frontières. For more information about TSF visit www.tsfi.org. For more information about the UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, visit www.unfoundation.org/vodafone.
I am among the two teams of Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) emergency telecommunications specialists who deployed to Haiti as it was hit by four cyclones--Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike--all in less than a month. TSF's teams deployed from bases in Nicaragua and in France to support communications both among humanitarian relief workers, and for Haitians who had been driven from their homes by flood waters.
The hub of humanitarian relief efforts in Haiti is in Gonaives, a northern city that has been mostly destroyed by the hurricanes. Local authorities estimate that as many nearly 56,000 families have been affected by the cyclones, and living conditions here are extremely difficult.
Although water levels in Gonaives' streets have lowered, mud has taken over. Gonaives is surrounded by hills devastated by deforestation, triggering mudslides that pour into the city. Daily storms make removing mud from homes and roads impossible, and aid agencies fear the stagnating water will spread diseases if it is not removed quickly.
Haitians forced from their homes by the storms are now crowded into schools, churches or hospitals that have been converted into temporary shelters, even while these buildings also have been affected by the storms. In other instances those left homeless are staying with family or friends. Our driver, for example, has been sheltering 20 people in his house for more than 2 weeks.
I am on the TSF team that is running a 'humanitarian calling operation' that provides affected populations with free, 3-minute phone calls to reconnect with loved ones. Since we launched our operation two days ago, it has been a tremendous success. Already more than 500 families were able to contact a loved one to ask for money or just give news to their family for the first time since the cyclones.
Each day, the TSF team providing calls for the local population travels from shelter to shelter, reaching on average 2 shelters per day. We use both satellite and mobile phones--satellite phones for international calls, and mobile for domestic ones. Access to satellite phones is very important since 80% of calls being placed go abroad--of those calls, 90% are to the United States, mainly to Florida but also to New York, Boston, Washington or Kansas.
Today, a 53-year old woman was able to call her father in Miami for the first time since the disaster. She thanked us because even if her father wasn't able to send any money they were both very happy to give news. "It was so good to hear his voice. You gave me 3 minutes of happiness," she said before leaving. Later, a man cried after calling his wife in Boston.
The Western Union office here has now reopened, making TSF's calls even more important as people will now be able to arrange money transfers. The Haitian Diaspora is indeed a huge source of revenue for many families living in Gonaives.
Normally, a 3-minute call from Haiti would cost around 135 gourdes. To put that in context, a cup of rice here (people don't count in kilos or in pounds but in "cups") costs 35 gourdes. For a population devastated by the food crisis and then these storms, access to TSF's phone lines may mean not only moments of comfort connecting with loved ones, but possibly also a lifeline to friends or family who could send money.
TSF's calling operations should last another 10 days depending on the needs. Our deployment to Haiti--which also includes telecommunications support for United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) teams, as well as for relief workers with UNICEF and NGOs such as Médecins Sans Frontières and the Spanish Red Cross--is supported by partners including the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO), and the UN Foundation and Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, which supports the use of emergency communications for disaster relief.
--
Oisin Walton is head of communications and international relations for Télécoms Sans Frontières. For more information about TSF visit www.tsfi.org. For more information about the UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, visit www.unfoundation.org/vodafone.
Wednesday 17 September 2008, 3:36 AM
Building Connections in Emergency Communications
By Monique Lanne-Petit, director and co-founder of Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF)
As we've seen time and again, telecommunications can reduce the impact of humanitarian crisis and cut through logistical problems. If ever there were an example that underlined this to us, it was the case of a young girl injured following a huge earthquake in Bam in Iran in 2003.
This little girl had almost lost a leg when her house collapsed and she urgently needed to be evacuated for treatment to save her leg. With her papers trapped in the collapsed house, however, she was unable to get a visa to travel. Using a satellite based internet connection we were able to send the information and a photo of the girl to Tehran to get a new passport issued in her name. Without very simple equipment like this, she would certainly have lost her leg, and could even have lost her life.
In situations ranging from political conflict to natural disasters, Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) strengthens communications during relief efforts by deploying emergency telecommunications centres anywhere in the world within 24 hours of a humanitarian crisis.
Since we opened our doors in 1998, we have deployed to over 50 countries on five continents. Each year, TSF deploys on average 350 days per year. This work has benefitted over 500 groups, including non-governmental organizations and UN agencies, as well as countless disaster survivors.
TSF's telecoms centres offer broadband internet access, voice communications, fax lines and all the IT equipment needed for a field office. We use highly portable and light satellite terminals that can be set up within minutes to provide worldwide coverage. And through regional teams in France, Nicaragua and Thailand, TSF is on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
While technological advances are making it easier to communicate in emergencies, there is still much to be done -- particularly in the areas of prevention and disaster preparedness as well as development.
In the past thirty years it has often been pharmaceutical and food companies which were most associated with helping NGOs respond to humanitarian crises. Our work, and the support of partners like the UN Foundation and Vodafone Foundation, is helping to demonstrate the enormous potential for telecoms and new technologies companies to contribute to international humanitarian programmes worldwide.
--
[Read more in Monique's post "From Kosovo to Haiti: TSF's Emergency Communications for Disaster Relief"]
For more information about TSF, visit www.tsfi.org. To learn more about the UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, visit www.unfoundation.org/vodafone.
As we've seen time and again, telecommunications can reduce the impact of humanitarian crisis and cut through logistical problems. If ever there were an example that underlined this to us, it was the case of a young girl injured following a huge earthquake in Bam in Iran in 2003.
This little girl had almost lost a leg when her house collapsed and she urgently needed to be evacuated for treatment to save her leg. With her papers trapped in the collapsed house, however, she was unable to get a visa to travel. Using a satellite based internet connection we were able to send the information and a photo of the girl to Tehran to get a new passport issued in her name. Without very simple equipment like this, she would certainly have lost her leg, and could even have lost her life.
In situations ranging from political conflict to natural disasters, Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) strengthens communications during relief efforts by deploying emergency telecommunications centres anywhere in the world within 24 hours of a humanitarian crisis.
Since we opened our doors in 1998, we have deployed to over 50 countries on five continents. Each year, TSF deploys on average 350 days per year. This work has benefitted over 500 groups, including non-governmental organizations and UN agencies, as well as countless disaster survivors.
TSF's telecoms centres offer broadband internet access, voice communications, fax lines and all the IT equipment needed for a field office. We use highly portable and light satellite terminals that can be set up within minutes to provide worldwide coverage. And through regional teams in France, Nicaragua and Thailand, TSF is on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
While technological advances are making it easier to communicate in emergencies, there is still much to be done -- particularly in the areas of prevention and disaster preparedness as well as development.
In the past thirty years it has often been pharmaceutical and food companies which were most associated with helping NGOs respond to humanitarian crises. Our work, and the support of partners like the UN Foundation and Vodafone Foundation, is helping to demonstrate the enormous potential for telecoms and new technologies companies to contribute to international humanitarian programmes worldwide.
--
[Read more in Monique's post "From Kosovo to Haiti: TSF's Emergency Communications for Disaster Relief"]
For more information about TSF, visit www.tsfi.org. To learn more about the UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, visit www.unfoundation.org/vodafone.
Tuesday 16 September 2008, 10:50 PM
From Kosovo to Haiti: TSF's Emergency Communications for Disaster Relief
By Monique Lanne-Petit, director and co-founder of Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF)
After a large-scale disaster, there is urgent need for food, water, shelter, and medical help. Yet none of this is possible without quick and reliable communications.
Conflicts and natural disasters also often lead to massive civilian displacement, and separated families with no way of contacting one another.
By providing rapidly-deployable telecommunications centres, Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF), an organisation I helped to create just over 10 years ago, is helping to save lives and support victims and their families in the aftermath of major disasters.
We came up with the idea for Télécoms Sans Frontières from a simple observation made after many years’ experience with humanitarian charities, and listening to those in need. As volunteers working with missions responding to the crises in the Balkans and in Kurdistan during the first Gulf War, TSF co-founder Jean-François Cazenave and I realised that, in addition to medical and food aid, there was a critical need for reliable emergency telecommunications services.
During those missions, we were often approached by refugees with scraps of paper asking that we contact family members on their behalf. To address the need for communications services, Jean-François and I, along with a small team of others involved in TSF from the very beginning, bought our first satellite phone and TSF was born.
We conducted our first “humanitarian calling operation” in Tropoje (Albania, Kosovo border) in 1998. Since that time, TSF has offered a 3-minute call to families affected by major disasters in over 60 deployments. It is impossible to imagine the power of these phone calls.
In one memorable example a woman in camp on the Chadian border with Darfur managed to contact her brother in Khartoum to find out that her son was still alive. She had waited three months to find out whether he had survived when they fled their village and three minutes of a call put an end to those months of misery and anxiety.
Through our work, we soon found that the international humanitarian relief workers that deploy to emergencies also had a critical need for reliable telecommunications services in the first days after an emergency. With support from the United Nations Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, we expanded our operations to begin providing direct support for the broader international relief community including UN, government, and NGO humanitarian workers.
[Read more in Monique's post "Making Connections to Support Emergency Communications"]
--
For more information about TSF, visit www.tsfi.org. To learn more about the UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, visit www.unfoundation.org/vodafone.
After a large-scale disaster, there is urgent need for food, water, shelter, and medical help. Yet none of this is possible without quick and reliable communications.
Conflicts and natural disasters also often lead to massive civilian displacement, and separated families with no way of contacting one another.
By providing rapidly-deployable telecommunications centres, Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF), an organisation I helped to create just over 10 years ago, is helping to save lives and support victims and their families in the aftermath of major disasters.
We came up with the idea for Télécoms Sans Frontières from a simple observation made after many years’ experience with humanitarian charities, and listening to those in need. As volunteers working with missions responding to the crises in the Balkans and in Kurdistan during the first Gulf War, TSF co-founder Jean-François Cazenave and I realised that, in addition to medical and food aid, there was a critical need for reliable emergency telecommunications services.
During those missions, we were often approached by refugees with scraps of paper asking that we contact family members on their behalf. To address the need for communications services, Jean-François and I, along with a small team of others involved in TSF from the very beginning, bought our first satellite phone and TSF was born.
We conducted our first “humanitarian calling operation” in Tropoje (Albania, Kosovo border) in 1998. Since that time, TSF has offered a 3-minute call to families affected by major disasters in over 60 deployments. It is impossible to imagine the power of these phone calls.
In one memorable example a woman in camp on the Chadian border with Darfur managed to contact her brother in Khartoum to find out that her son was still alive. She had waited three months to find out whether he had survived when they fled their village and three minutes of a call put an end to those months of misery and anxiety.
Through our work, we soon found that the international humanitarian relief workers that deploy to emergencies also had a critical need for reliable telecommunications services in the first days after an emergency. With support from the United Nations Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, we expanded our operations to begin providing direct support for the broader international relief community including UN, government, and NGO humanitarian workers.
[Read more in Monique's post "Making Connections to Support Emergency Communications"]
--
For more information about TSF, visit www.tsfi.org. To learn more about the UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, visit www.unfoundation.org/vodafone.
Friday 12 September 2008, 4:03 PM
Using mHealth to Promote Development in Africa
My name is Awa Dieng, and I work for DataDyne.org, a public health and technology organization that has created software called EpiSurveyor for health data collection.
My job involves traveling to sub-Saharan African countries to train doctors and health worker in the use of EpiSurveyor. I never thought that I would be working on data collection, or even health, but that’s where life has led me.
I have a little bit of a technical background, but have always had a strong interest in working for an organization that is doing something to help development in Africa’s sub-Saharan region. I’m originally from there – from Senegal.
Most of our work is focused in sub-Saharan Africa, where many of these countries had previously been collecting data on paper –if they had been collecting data at all.
When data is collected on paper, it takes a very long time and it also produces a lot of errors. And if the data is from a country like the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is a huge country with 26 provinces, you can imagine how difficult it is to transfer the data from each province to the central office where somebody has to key-in all that data.
The software we are using helps to eliminate this process of data entry because it has already been entered into the mobile device that was used to collect the data. All that has to be done is to synchronize the mobile device to send the data to a computer and then e-mail the data to the central office for analysis.
The benefit of this mobile technology is that it not only reduces data entry errors tremendously, but it also makes the work of data collection go much faster. This is important because without good health data, you don’t know what is going on in a country--if there is an outbreak somewhere, you don’t know that it is happening.
The data we collect is intended to be used by the UN World Health Organization, but it also helps the national ministry of health because it gives them reliable information that was not available before.
I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. This is way beyond what I expected to do and I’m just glad to be part of an organization that’s making a difference. I can’t wait to see what we do next.
--
Awa Dieng, a program officer at the nonprofit consultancy DataDyne.org, is using mobile technologies to improve public health with the support of the UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership's Mobile Health (mHealth) for Development program. The mHealth program also works closely with the UN World Health Organization and national Ministries of Health. For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org.
My job involves traveling to sub-Saharan African countries to train doctors and health worker in the use of EpiSurveyor. I never thought that I would be working on data collection, or even health, but that’s where life has led me.
I have a little bit of a technical background, but have always had a strong interest in working for an organization that is doing something to help development in Africa’s sub-Saharan region. I’m originally from there – from Senegal.
Most of our work is focused in sub-Saharan Africa, where many of these countries had previously been collecting data on paper –if they had been collecting data at all.
When data is collected on paper, it takes a very long time and it also produces a lot of errors. And if the data is from a country like the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is a huge country with 26 provinces, you can imagine how difficult it is to transfer the data from each province to the central office where somebody has to key-in all that data.
The software we are using helps to eliminate this process of data entry because it has already been entered into the mobile device that was used to collect the data. All that has to be done is to synchronize the mobile device to send the data to a computer and then e-mail the data to the central office for analysis.
The benefit of this mobile technology is that it not only reduces data entry errors tremendously, but it also makes the work of data collection go much faster. This is important because without good health data, you don’t know what is going on in a country--if there is an outbreak somewhere, you don’t know that it is happening.
The data we collect is intended to be used by the UN World Health Organization, but it also helps the national ministry of health because it gives them reliable information that was not available before.
I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. This is way beyond what I expected to do and I’m just glad to be part of an organization that’s making a difference. I can’t wait to see what we do next.
--
Awa Dieng, a program officer at the nonprofit consultancy DataDyne.org, is using mobile technologies to improve public health with the support of the UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership's Mobile Health (mHealth) for Development program. The mHealth program also works closely with the UN World Health Organization and national Ministries of Health. For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org.
Tuesday 9 September 2008, 10:29 PM
The way forward: Mobile health in Kenya
My name is Titus Kolongei, and I work as a health information officer with the Division of Vaccines and Immunization, formerly KEPI (the Kenya Expanded Programme on Immunizations). My work entails collecting and analyzing health data, and submitting and sharing information with various stakeholders.
It used to be that much of this work was done on paper, but following a pilot project that took place in 2007 that is beginning to change. I was a participant in the pilot PDA project using EpiSurveyor--an open-source software for mobile devices--to support our data collection activities in the country. The pilot was led by the non-profit organization DataDyne, and funded by the United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Foundation partnership.
This technology brings much greater efficiency to what I do. Being able to electronically collect health data means that I don’t have to use paper, recording survey data with a pen, and filling out numerous forms and questionnaires. I just input the data into the PDA and then synchronize it to the computer to be analyzed.
I think this sort of technology is the way forward for most African countries.
Toward the end of December 2007, we decided to try to use EpiSurveyor in many other ways, beyond collecting data from rural health clinics. When we had a polio outbreak in our country, we decided to use EpiSurveyor to monitor polio immunization campaign activities by inputting a checklist on our PDAs to measure the quality and coverage of the National Immunization Days (NIDs). We used the software to collect data on how many houses had been missed, how many children had been successfully vaccinated, and where follow up efforts were still needed. My colleagues and I then synchronized the data that we had collected on our PDAs, and were able to analyze all of that data right there on our laptops while still in the field.
EpiSurveyor is helping make a big difference because it makes my work go a lot faster. You can imagine the hours it takes just to manually write down all of that data and fill out all of those health survey forms! Now we just collect and enter our data in one step. With this technology, it is also possible to send your data wherever you are, so we are even able to send data from the field directly to a central office.
Is this technology making an impact in Africa? I would say a big, big yes. The future for African countries is in technology. In every country, people are moving toward improving the way that they work. I think wireless technologies will be very good for the future of public health in Kenya . It’s very exciting where we are headed—toward making our health programs work much faster, and therefore much better.
--
Titus Kolongei, a health information officer with the Kenyan Division of Vaccines and Immunization, is using mobile technologies to improve public health with the support of the UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership's Mobile Health (mHealth) for Development program. The mHealth program works closely with the UN World Health Organization and national Ministries of Health. For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org.
It used to be that much of this work was done on paper, but following a pilot project that took place in 2007 that is beginning to change. I was a participant in the pilot PDA project using EpiSurveyor--an open-source software for mobile devices--to support our data collection activities in the country. The pilot was led by the non-profit organization DataDyne, and funded by the United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Foundation partnership.
This technology brings much greater efficiency to what I do. Being able to electronically collect health data means that I don’t have to use paper, recording survey data with a pen, and filling out numerous forms and questionnaires. I just input the data into the PDA and then synchronize it to the computer to be analyzed.
I think this sort of technology is the way forward for most African countries.
Toward the end of December 2007, we decided to try to use EpiSurveyor in many other ways, beyond collecting data from rural health clinics. When we had a polio outbreak in our country, we decided to use EpiSurveyor to monitor polio immunization campaign activities by inputting a checklist on our PDAs to measure the quality and coverage of the National Immunization Days (NIDs). We used the software to collect data on how many houses had been missed, how many children had been successfully vaccinated, and where follow up efforts were still needed. My colleagues and I then synchronized the data that we had collected on our PDAs, and were able to analyze all of that data right there on our laptops while still in the field.
EpiSurveyor is helping make a big difference because it makes my work go a lot faster. You can imagine the hours it takes just to manually write down all of that data and fill out all of those health survey forms! Now we just collect and enter our data in one step. With this technology, it is also possible to send your data wherever you are, so we are even able to send data from the field directly to a central office.
Is this technology making an impact in Africa? I would say a big, big yes. The future for African countries is in technology. In every country, people are moving toward improving the way that they work. I think wireless technologies will be very good for the future of public health in Kenya . It’s very exciting where we are headed—toward making our health programs work much faster, and therefore much better.
--
Titus Kolongei, a health information officer with the Kenyan Division of Vaccines and Immunization, is using mobile technologies to improve public health with the support of the UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership's Mobile Health (mHealth) for Development program. The mHealth program works closely with the UN World Health Organization and national Ministries of Health. For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org.
