Missions

Within the framework of operational partnerships with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Télécoms Sans Frontières is the go-to organisation for providing technical expertise and training workshops on the application of emergency telecommunications in the humanitarian context.

TSF organised a capacity building programme to strengthen the humanitarian response system through the optimal use of technologies

Technical experts and logisticians from the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Service received training in emergency telecommunications from TSF in Nairobi.

In response to the severe food crisis in northern Kenya and its neighboring countries in the Horn of Africa, TSF dispatched a team to the affected area of Dadaab in northeastern Kenya. TSF were are responsible for connecting the crisis centre for NGOs working in the region.

After almost two years of drought, the situation in northern Kenya deteriorated in the summer of 2011. TSF partnered with VSF-Germany to conduct Cash For Work activities in South Marsabit District, Turkana West, North Horr and Loyangalani. Thanks to TSF's expertise, beneficiaries were able to be paid by the M-PESA mobile payment system.

The northern suburbs of Bangkok are under water. TSF evacuated its regional base and set up telephony operations in neighborhoods where the network had been affected.

Between August 2010 and February 2011, TSF trained 102 staff members from organisations and humanitarian agencies in Asia and Central and Latin America to improve effective use of telecommunications service in emergency situations.

TSF developed an information system to facilitate pregnant women's access to malaria treatments on the Burmese border.

The heavy rains in the autumn of 2010 caused major floods in southern Thailand and northern Malaysia. A TSF team deployed to the Hat Yai province, where water levels had reached 3m, to assess the state of communications networks. TSF supported relief efforts as well as the local population.

Thanks to the Libreville agreement that put an end to fighting between the Central African army and rebel armed groups, refugees gradually regained their village after two years of absence. TSF supported the rehabilitation project set up by IRC by installing radio links between the capital offices and the bush offices, as well as in vehicles to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers.

TSF deployed a team of emergency telecommunications specialists in the Darfur region of Sudan to conduct an assessment mission for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The mission was to assess the telecommunications infrastructure in Nyala, El Genina and El Fasher to determine the needs of the United Nations and NGOs in these cities located to the west of the country near the Chadian border. This conflict-ridden region, which, according to international experts, had since 2003 killed more than 200,000 people and forced more than two million to flee fighting and take refuge in makeshift camps on both sides of the border in Chad and Sudan.

From its Asia-Pacific base on the campus of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok, TSF deployed a team to strengthen relief efforts working alongside thousands of people in the Solomon Islands. The TSF team dispatched to support United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) teams - the UN emergency teams responsible for coordination and assessment in the aftermath of disasters.