This program is supported by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Department.
On February 27th, within hours of the devastating earthquake in Chile, TSF deployed an emergency telecom team from its regional base in Managua. A second TSF emergency telecom team, drawn both from our Bangkok and France bases, joined this effort rapidly. In coordination with local authorities, they conducted telecoms assessments and ran civilian calling operations until the end of the mission on March 12th, 2010.
Following the disaster, TSF, in agreement with ECHO’s regional experts, TSF started a program to strengthen the capacities of Chile’s government in emergency telecommunications. TSF used its experience as the first NGO specializing in telecommunications to build the capacity of Chilean disaster response agencies in telecommunications and information technology.
The program took place from May 16th to the 24th in Santiago. 16 staff of the national organizations ONEMI and SUBTEL (Under-Secretary for Telecommunications) attended theoretical presentations on emergency environment, telecom hardware and services available for emergencies, as well as participated 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 and able 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 organisms. "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 trainings TSF provides this week to our regional delegates are 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 were either very satisfied or extremely satisfied by the training sessions.
The mission is supported by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Department.
