This program is supported by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO).
On February 27th, within hours of the devastating earthquake in Chile, TSF deployed an emergency telecoms team from its regional base in Managua. A second TSF emergency telecoms team, drawn both from our Bangkok and France bases, joined this effort rapidly.
Telecommunications networks were seriously damaged, making evaluations, relief coordination and interventions difficult. Facing this humanitarian tragedy President Michelle Bachelet called for urgent international help and indicated that re-establishing telecommunications was a high priority.
TSF immediately coordinated with Chile’s authorities in order to decrease the impact of the disaster on affected populations. Meetings with the Ministry of Telecommunications, the National Office of Emergencies (ONEMI), and the European Commission's delegation were informed about the situation very rapidly after the outbreak of the disaster.
In coordination with local authorities, they conducted telecom assessments and ran civilian calling operations until the end of the mission on March 12th, 2010.
Following the disaster, TSF was requested to use its experience as the first NGO specialising in telecommunications to reinforce the capacity of telecommunications and information technology of Chilean disaster response agencies.
The program took place from May 16th to May 24th in Santiago. 16 staff of the national organisations ONEMI and SUBTEL (Under-Secretary for Telecommunications) attended theoretical presentations on emergency environment, telecom hardware and services available for emergencies, as well as participating in hands-on sessions and simulation exercises.
The web portal - created by TSF within the framework of its former international training program dedicated to international emergency response NGOs (www.ictrelief.org) - is also available for ONEMI and SUBTEL’s staff. Thanks to this tool and its forum, they can have updated telecom information and download technical documents.
Through this program and the transfer of TSF’s technical knowledge and skills, the objective is to allow the Chilean governmental entities to be autonomous in emergency situations, to deploy their own satellite equipment on the ground and set up rapidly reliable Internet and phone connections.
Following the disaster, TSF was requested to use its experience as the first NGO specialising in telecommunications to reinforce the capacity of telecommunications and information technology of Chilean disaster response agencies.
The program took place from May 16th to May 24th in Santiago. 16 staff of the national organisations ONEMI and SUBTEL (Under-Secretary for Telecommunications) attended theoretical presentations on emergency environment, telecom hardware and services available for emergencies, as well as participating in hands-on sessions and simulation exercises.
The web portal - created by TSF within the framework of its former international training program dedicated to international emergency response NGOs (www.ictrelief.org) - is also available for ONEMI and SUBTEL’s staff. Thanks to this tool and its forum, they can have updated telecom information and download technical documents.
Through this program and the transfer of TSF’s technical knowledge and skills, the objective is to allow the Chilean governmental entities to be autonomous in emergency situations, to deploy their own satellite equipment on the ground and set up rapidly reliable Internet and phone connections.
The National Director of ONEMI, Vicente Núñez highlights the importance of strategic alliances with international organisations. "We shared experiences and agreements were adopted on the application of new technologies to the national system of alert with the United States governments, particularly with the State of California, Japan, the European Commission and New Zealand, among others. The training TSF provides this week to our regional delegates is very important and useful to face emergency situations, and I thank TSF and the European Commission”.
Based on the feedback from the participants in the program evaluation, 87.5% of the beneficiaries were either very satisfied or extremely satisfied with the training sessions.
The mission is supported by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Department.
