Télécoms Sans Frontières has been responding to the flood emergency since August 9th.
TSF provided support to UNDAC teams (United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination) in Punjab and OCHA (the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) in Islamabad to strengthen coordination and support initial assessments. This assignment ended when the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster and other OCHA partners (IHP) took over.
Calling Operations in KPK Province with NGO-partner YRC (Youth Resources Centre)
Since August 20th, TSF have been running civilian calling operations in KPK Province (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) -in collaboration with our implementing partner, Pakistani NGO YRC.
Eight mobiles teams, working in pairs (one man and one woman), have so far visited more than 120 locations in Charsadda, Nowshera and Peshawar districts, to help people make phone calls to relatives living elsewhere in Pakistan or abroad, so that they can give news and ask for dedicated assistance and money in particular.
Temporary shelters are schools and camps often set up along roads or motorways.
The teams have provided free calls to more than 4,000 affected families (18% of international calls to Europe, Middle East, Afghanistan, US...). 48% of the calls were made by women.
As on average there are 7 people per family, it means that more than 28,000 people were reconnected throughout the world.
Calling Operations in Sindh Province with NGO-partner HTP (Hope and Transformation for Poverty)
In parallel, TSF has been preparing the extension of its operations to southern Sindh Province.
A TSF ICT staff deployed to Karachi on September 1st from Bangkok to coordinate with the local Pakistani NGO HTP, active in Sindh Province, in order to start the operations as quickly as possible.
Humanitarian calling operations started on September 2nd in Samzi Mandi camp, where 35,000 people are sheltered. Almost 600 calls have been offered to affected civilians.
About Télécoms Sans Frontières:
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.
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.
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