CESVI is among the tens of NGOs, United Nations and Government agencies that are benefiting from the internet connection installed by Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) at the coordination centre set up at the Beira airport. On Sunday 17 March, when the first NGOs started to arrive on site, TSF installed the first connection in the area. Since then, 350 users already benefited from the connection and over 40GB have been exchanged.
In order to provide effective humanitarian response in the aftermath of a natural disaster, access to communication is essential from the very beginning. Without this, it would be impossible for humanitarian actors to communicate the needs of the affected populations and carry out an adequate response.
Thanks to TSF connection, Petri, as well as all the other NGOs on the ground, are able to effectively coordinate their activities. Indeed, after Cyclone Idai hit the Mozambican coast, clear information on the situation in the area was not available due to the lack of operational communication means. Re-establishing a connection has thus been of paramount importance.
“I am very grateful for this establishment of telecommunications in this emergency coordination hub, for the humanitarian staff and the different organisations. We don't have a connection in our office anymore. We are relying on small modems from the Movitel network, and that's very shifty, it is not very reliable. Here it's slow, but sure! Slow only because of the number of people!” Petri continues.
TSF teams have already conducted an assessment of the telecommunication needs in different parts of the city and started to carry out mobile telephony operations for the population in the most isolated areas. Based on the results of the assessment, our teams aim also to start itinerant Wi-Fi operations in these areas in the coming days.
350 humanitarian actors already connected thanks to TSF
“Obviously, communication is the most important thing when you are trying to get any kind of emergency response going or trying to recover what's left of your staff” declared Petri Siikanen, Head of Mission and Mozambique Country Director for the Italian NGO CESVI (Cooperazione e Sviluppo). “I managed to get out some of the most urgent communications, what I have been pending for a long time, so really thank you guys!”
