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Telecoms Charity Assisting with Bangladesh Disaster
Deployed since last Thursday in Bangladesh, country which is facing the worst disaster in ten years, the charity, Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) already set up two Emergency Communication Centres in Barisal, Pirojpur, and another one in Barguna held by the United Nations. These three cities are focal points for humanitarian aid coordination in cyclone Sidr affected regions.
Sidr, which hit the coast of Bangladesh on November 15th, killed at least 3,243 people according to a recent official toll. 34,500 people were injured and 1,180 are still missing more than ten days after the disaster government sources announced. Between 4 and 6.7 million Bangladeshis were affected and 360,000 were still without shelter on Monday. 30 of the 64 districts of the country have been affected.
TSF's centres offer broadband Internet connections, phone and fax lines and a dedicated technical assistance to the whole humanitarian community.
In Mexico and the Dominican Republic, TSF's support missions to the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination teams have come to an end.
Early November, the Dominican Republic was seriously affected by tropical storm Noël which killed more than 100 people. 65,000 were driven from their homes and over 16,000 houses destroyed. For almost two weeks, TSF put an Emergency Communication Centre available in order to facilitate the mission of the United Nations.
In Mexico, heavy floods affected over one million inhabitants of the south-eastern states of Mexico. TSF set up two communication centres for the United Nations in the states of Chiapas and Tabasco in order to support the first emergency phase of the disaster response. The country has now entered the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase.
The mission in Bangladesh is the 10th emergency mission of TSF since the beginning of the year. These missions are supported by the Vodafone Group Foundation (VGF), the United Nations Foundation and also Inmarsat, France Telecom, Eutelsat, AT&T, Vizada and Cable & Wireless.
Posted to the site on 27th November 2007