For more than one month TSF has assisted victims of the four consecutive cyclones that devastated much of Haiti: Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike. The main affected area is Gonaïves, a northern city of 300,000 inhabitants already affected in 2004 where at least 250,000 people needed immediate assistance. Les Gonaïves soon became the main humanitarian hub for aid agencies (both UN and NGOs) with overall coordination in the capital Port au Prince.
TSF deployed an Emergency Communication Centre for the humanitarian community at the MINUSTAH compound (The United Nations stabilization Mission in Haiti). An average of 50 aid workers from more than 30 aid organizations benefited daily from TSF’s satellite-based Broadband Internet connection and IT support.
TSF started its humanitarian calling operations to enable those who had lost everything to give news and call for help. In total almost 1700 families were able to contact a loved-one mainly abroad. Each family was given a free three-minute call to anywhere in the world. Over 80 percent of the calls were international and 90 percent of international calls were to the U.S.
A cyber café is now reopened, the mobile network also offers Internet connectivity through GPRS, some aid agencies have been able to bring their own communications equipment and WFP also installed a backup solution both available at the MINUSTAH compound and at the Port (an important logistics base). Even though there is still no electricity in Gonaives, those affected are able to charge their mobile phones using generators and other sources of energy such as car batteries.
Despite the situation in telecommunications has improved, the overall living conditions for the population of Gonaives are still extremely difficult and people will continue to depend on international assistance for several months. According to MSF some 10,000 people are living on roofs, in tents or in fragile shacks made of wood debris and bed sheets. The UN has calculated 2.5 million cubic meters of mud have been deposited in the city alone. This would take removing about 400 truckloads of mud a day, every day for a year to clear Gonaives.
