Telecoms Sans Frontieres, Using Technology for Disaster Relief

When a calamity, war, or pandemic strikes, the Telecoms San Frontieres team springs into action. Through satellite uplinks, they provide free three-minute calls for people desperate to reach family to let them know about their conditions. Telecoms San Frontieres, (meaning Telecommunications Without Borders), is a relief organization based in southern France with more than a decade of experience in setting up emergency communications facilities in war or disaster zones. A telecommunication booth was set up at the Municipal Building Grounds last October 19, 2009 offering the said three-minute call (both domestic and international calls) to anyone and everyone. Oisin Walton, team leader of the Telecoms San Frontieres unit sent here said volunteers like him go to disaster zones to carry out their organizations mission and to provide some sort of relief to the community using technology. In the onset of the devastation of Super Typhoon Pepeng, land line telecommunication was brought down to a halt for more than a week (October 9-19, 2009) and the efforts of Telecoms Sans Frontieres were very timely to provide telecommunication to our constituents.