Robin Burton
Who We Are • The largest humanitarian organization in the world • 187 National Societies • 100,000 employees • 14 million volunteers worldwide
Why We Are Best Placed To Help Disaster Affected People • An auxiliary relationship to national governments • Most governments contract with the national Red Cross or Red Crescent Society to deliver certain relief services in time of disaster • Governments also provide substantial funding • Therefore usually able to bring many more resources to bear in time of disaster compared with NGOs
Who We Are IFRC Vision Three strategic objectives (S2020): • Save lives, protect livelihoods, and to help communities to prepare for, and recover from, disasters and crises • Enable healthy and safer living • Promote social inclusion and a culture of non-violence
What is Beneficiary Communications? • A beneficiary is a person who receives a service from the Red Cross. In other terms, beneficiaries are our customers. • Beneficiary communications is about empowering people. It uses communication channels to effectively connect humanitarian programming with the people they are designed to support. • Beneficiary communications is a global IFRC initiative. We have a worldwide license agreement with Trilogy International Partners and plan to deploy in 40+ countries.
Your Network Can Save Lives “An SMS from the Red Cross … gave me more hope” Andrena, Annexe Camp, Haiti
Location Targeted SMS • Prompt warnings of floods, hurricanes, fires • Information on where to find medical help, clean water, food, shelter • Advice on what to do • Feedback showing where aid of various types is most needed • Increase the efficiency of Red Cross efforts on the ground
Automated Response • System identifies key words e.g. “Cholera” and responds with an automatic message giving advice • Allows team to handle extreme high volumes of demand • Provides statistics to help manage demand
With Minimal Disruption to Your Network • Control always remains with you • You decide the rate at which messages can be sent • Localised messages • Minimises the number sent • Increases the impact • Timed messages • Off peak messages • Operated by specially trained Red Cross staff
Why SMS? • The most basic service on a GSM network • Will be the first to be restored after a disaster • Uses very little network capacity • Message stored on the mobile phone • Supports “run and tell” to get messages to those without a working mobile phone • Can be forwarded to people on other networks
Where Did TERA Come From? • It has been designed by Trilogy, a mobile operator in conjunction with the Red Cross, addressing practical implementation and operation concerns for both sides • Designed in response to the earthquake disaster in Haiti
Performance in Haiti • Delivered 70 Million messages • Prompted over 1 Million people to respond and ask for help and information • Improved effectiveness of aid effort
How We Used the TERA SMS System
Results in Haiti • 25% of people have received a Red Cross SMS • Many others had information “passed on” • SMS about weather and health most popular • 95% said SMS was useful • 90% acted on the SMS
What do people think? The message about cholera was great. It explained how to prevent cholera by washing hands. It was very useful for me because I didn’t know what precautions to take. I shared the message with my sister, who has a baby. Red Cross SMS talked about hurricane and what to do in heavy rains – like don’t cross rivers, keep the children close to you. These messages have been very helpful and useful. I hope I’ll be receiving more SMS, because even if I have nothing to feed myself, an SMS from Red Cross will make me feel ok and give me more hope. Naomi Fils-Aimé, Champs Mars Andrena, Annexe Camp I would like to be subscribed to the Red Cross SMS service because I have a Digicel phone and I have never received an SMS from the Red Cross. Caller to Red Cross radio show on 05.10.11
The Development of TERA
What We Are Asking You To Do • Give us access to your network in advance of any disaster • Under clear terms of usage • Provide two simple servers and a small Oracle licence • Work with our team to implement the system (about 25 man days of effort) • Provide us with SMS messaging free of cost • Except in emergencies messages will be sent off peak • Messages are also localised to avoid “SPAM” effect
What We Will Do • Connect your network to our regional disaster control centre • Ready to move into action immediately it is needed • Co-operate with other agencies to minimise the requests made to you for help • Control usage to minimise the impact on your network • Report to you on the usage that we have made • Treat any information about your network or customers in full commercial confidence
Safeguards For Your Business • Only sends messages to active mobile handsets, reducing congestion due to undelivered messages • You are in full control, throttling the number of messages available for relief work • Sensitive information, such as cell site locations, can be hidden from Red Cross operators • Use is governed by a mutually negotiated SLA, guaranteeing that the system is not abused • Full audit trail maintained to support this SLA • Full roles and rights system structure
Why You Should Do This Now • It is the right thing to do • You will give your customers the best chance of surviving a disaster • You also give them another reason for choosing your network • The cost and effort is very little by comparison with the good that you will do • It is estimated that in Haiti an investment of about $50K by the network delivered as much as $3 Million of effective benefit to the aid effort
Shall We Get Started?
