TSF Responds.. Africa’s Famine.. No Rain For Two Years (SatCom)

[SatNews] They hunger for food and hunger to communicate…

So much of the world could never comprehend the dispair that comes with lack of food. Unable to provide for their families, children and elders fall ill. Who is in need of what, and relocation of families, the lack of communications further compounds the crisis. Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) has once again embarked on a journey to offer their assistance.

Crisis in the Horn of Africa TSF intervenes in the Dadaab and Garissa regions In response to the acute food crisis that is now affecting the north of Kenya and its neighboring countries. In the Horn of Africa, Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) is dispatching a team to the affected region of Dadaab, north-east Kenya.

More than 10 million people are directly threatened by the famine prominent in three countries in the Horn of Africa, Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, which have been hit by the worst period of drought for 60 years. Every day, thousands are pouring into the humanitarian camps in Dadaab (Dagahaley, Hagadera and Ifo), which today shelter close to 400,000 refugees; more than four times the predicted initial capacity.

TSF immediately coordinated with cooperation organizations for development, notably the NGO Veterinarians Without Borders Belgium (VSF), in Nairobi, for the preparation of their operations before their arrival. VSF is an international NGO that supports local farming cooperative projects worldwide, and the impact of its work with livestock breeders and farmers in southern countries is very important. Thus, in the context of the food crisis, TSF has chosen to work alongside these organizations, to reinforce their programs in the field of new technologies to aid the affected populations.

As soon as the TSF team touches down, they will set up a crisis center in the Garissa region, several kilometers from the Dadaab camps, to the benefit of the international NGOs. TSF will establish a technical and telecoms infrastructure necessary for effective emergency operations (Internet and telephone connections, computers and peripheral IT materials…). Emergency kits are provided to country offices, made of satellite communications and IT equipment and including power supplies, so that when commercial infrastructure is cut, offices can stay connected, report and coordinate with the central agency. These long-term education and training projects lead to positive impacts in economic development as well as capacity building of humanitarian organizations.

Equally, the TSF team will carry out an assessment of the telecom needs within the new camps in the Dadaab region. The first collaboration between TSF and VSF was in July 2005, in response to a food crisis that hit Niger and affected more than three million people. TSF, in cooperation with VSF Belgium, opened an emergency telecoms center and priority telephone lines in Dakoro, southern Niger, to the benefit of all organizations working in the field. The TSF centers that will be established in north-east Kenya by expert teams will be open to all humanitarian workers in the area. It will allow them to communicate, and coordinate their operations in the heart of the affected region. TSF will maintain the connections even after the first emergency phase is over, as the resolution of a crisis takes time and requires the establishing of sustainable, long term solutions. This mission is made possible thanks to the support of TSF’s partners: the Vodafone Foundation, the United Nations Foundation, Inmarsat, Eutelsat, AT&T, PCCW Global, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Vizada, IT Cup, CFE-CGC/UNSA, the Humanitarian Aid department of the European Commission (ECHO), the Communauté d’Agglomération de Pau and the Regional Council of Aquitaine.