Connecting Disaster Relief Through Technology After Earthquake in Haiti

Posted: March 21, 2010 08:56 PM
Read More: 2004 Tsunami , Airaya , Bureau dâ??Implication Citoyenne , CharityHelp International , Cisco , Communications , Conatel , Connectivity , Cure International , Disaster Relief , Earthquake , Geo-Spacial Imaging , Global Aid , Global Citizens , Gonaives , Google Map , Haiti , Haitian Government , Haitian Medical Network , Houston , Hurricane Jeanne , I.T. , Indonesia , Information And Communication Technology , Internally Displaced Persons , International Medical Angels Network , Joint Task Force-Haiti J6 , Joseph Barnell , Leogane , Nebraska , Ngos , Oiww , Orphans International Worldwide , Port-Au-Prince , Satcom , Sherry Sterling , Skype , Sri Lanka , Technical Solution , Technology , Thought Leaders , Tranzeo , U.N. Emergency Telecommunications Cluster , U.S. Naval Postgraduate School , Usaid , Video Conferencing , Volunteering , Wifi , Wimax , World News
It cannot be overstated how hard the Haitian people — and their infrastructure — have been hit by the recent earthquake.
After suffering cumulative damage from non-stop hurricanes over the last three years — beginning with Hurricane Jeanne that destroyed Gonaives — their suffering has been unimaginable.
The damage seems to be equal to that of the 2004 Tsunami, which I witnessed in both Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
But unlike the Tsunami, where the world watched and waited, it seems as if international attention on Haiti’s tragedy has lost its focus. Many NGOs and militias have already left, but some good people remain – and reinforcements are arriving.
Sherry Sterling, R.N., the founder and C.E.O. of International Medical Angels Network , based in Houston, detailed to me the human situation on the ground:
The entire island of Haiti has been devastated with most of the country very hard hit from the 7.0 earthquake which left multitudes of crush injuries, amputees, and the already stressed health care system in shambles.
Sherry Sterling, R.N., outside a field hospital’s critical care unit in Port-au-Prince.
As founder of Orphans International Worldwide ( OIWW ), I saw after the Tsunami how necessary good communications are for disaster relief. And how important sustained global aid was.
As I prepare to lead our own post-disaster relief team of OIWW and other NGO volunteers down to Port-au-Prince in a few days, I am talking to as many people on the ground there as I can.
I have had extensive conversations with Dr. Tiffany Keenan, who was on the ground immediately after the quake, and a former Orphans International Worldwide Officer who now administers a pediatric hospital in Port-au-Prince, Phadoul Amisial.
Having been to Haiti 19 times over the last decade — including in Gonaives after Hurricane Jeanne — I know that Haitian communications and medical services were sporadic before the earthquake and disastrous now.
One American is out to change that. Joseph Barnell of Nebraska is now in Haiti working on ways to connect the hospitals and refugee camps for IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons).
Joseph Barnell, a lead telecommunications expert, laid out for me the communications-related implications for disaster relief workers in Haiti like him since the earthquake:
Imagine being in the midst of the earthquake disaster and dealing with survivors. The communications are knocked out. You are unable to call for an ambulance; you can’t even get dial in to an “Ask a Nurse Line,” much less tap into telemedicine capabilities.
Or perhaps you are a charity with access to food, shelter, water for the victims – but you are unable to coordinate the logistics required to move those supplies.
These are communication struggles that recovery workers in Haiti are dealing with on a daily basis.
A final example: we are in the midst of the rainy season and we have have shanty towns popping up on flood plains, when a straightforward Internet search could be used to help better identify flood plains using geospatial elevation data.
Unreliable and diminished communications in an emergency environment is as much a killer as the catastrophe itself. Relief workers, medical personnel, and engaged citizens in Haiti have had their recovery efforts stifled due to failed or inoperable communications links.
Additional road blocks of poor power and lack of trained information technology (I.T.) professionals have made a bad situation worse. Although our focus is on Haiti, this scenario is the norm for emerging nations when disaster strikes.
Following the earthquake, Joseph and an eclectic group of non-governmental agencies (NGOs), medical providers, and I.T. companies decided to stand up and not accept the status quo.
Joseph’s background in system engineering and wireless broadband may well reshape how telecommunications can be deployed in crisis conditions.
Joseph became involved in this project through the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). Brian Steckler, a NPS associate professor, had coordinated a team of nonprofits, both local and international, and private industry to deal with these connectivity challenges.
The Haitian arm of this effort is led by
BIC, a Haitian NGO based in Port-au-Prince, was formed in response to the need of reestablishing core infrastructure and key services to those affected by the disaster.
The organization is helping create the information environment necessary for stability and reconstruction.
This eclectic team has developed a naval concept dubbed as the Emergency Convergence Network (ECN) that may become the standard for future disaster relief operations.
ECN is a triple-redundant network infrastructure (SATCOM/WiFi/WiMAX). It is supporting a private medical and NGO network and was built with back-up power systems to enable both everyday and emergency response service.
This tremendous undertaking is being coordinated across institutions supporting real-time collaboration in a text, voice, and video-rich environment.
All these capabilities are now accessible to major hospitals, hastily established field hospitals, indigenous displaced persons (IDP/refugee) camps, and tent-city camps.
Joseph, the project’s coordinator, shared with me the following on this important task:
This triple-redundant network infrastructure — SATCOM, WiFi, and WiMAX — will address some of the most pressing communications-related challenges of pretty much everyone in Haiti.
Whether used by a local victim, a local responder, one of the thousands of hospital expat volunteers, U.S. or other militaries, the local and international NGO community, or the Haitian Government – the implications of the network for Haiti and future relief operations are enormous.
BIC and its partners were able to develop the ‘business rules’ — or operational requirements and procedures — that an emergency response I.T. network required. From those requirements, Joseph was able to customize an innovative, technical solution resulting in ECN.
The rollout pilot project is focusing first on getting a number of local permanent hospitals and IDP camps using primarily donated equipment such as Tranzeo, Airaya, and Cisco wireless communications gear – facilitated by the Naval Postgraduate School Foundation.
The main feature of the project, besides the SATCOM/WiFi/WiMAX infrastructure design, is the applications that reside atop the network that allow healthcare practitioners and other responders to get access to medical information logistical support and personnel coordination.
The response to ECN has been positive.
Joseph has briefed USAID, the Joint Task Force-Haiti J6, the U.N.’s Emergency Telecommunications Cluster, the Haitian Government’s Director General of CONATEL — their equivalent of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission/FCC — and other key Haitian businesses involved in Internet and communications.
Both Joseph and Sherry note that implementing a technical solution alone, however, is an incomplete response to emergencies in impoverished nations.
Further enhancements of the ECN capability and expansion of its private network is still necessary. Other telecommunication engineers are working on getting down to Haiti to continue strengthening this capability.
This next deployment includes training Haitians in the management of this new network which will also serve to generate jobs for the Haitian population.
My own team flies down to Leogane, 18 miles west of Port-au-Prince, in the next two days. Our objective is to provide post-disaster family-care programming for orphaned children living with their extended families.
In addition, we will be involved with our partner NGOs to provide education, health care, and clean water for these and other neighborhood children.
Truly global: the tents Orphans Interntional Worldwide will use in Leogane, Haiti were
donated by a Chinese college student in Beijing who flew them personally to New York.
The project will also have a communications center supported by CharityHelp International ( CHI ) and Skype . Whatever we do to build out communications in Leogane, we will be building upon the triple-redundant network infrastructure of Joseph Barnell.
There are many unsung heroes in Haiti today, Haitian and non-Haitian. Phadoul Amisial, Tiffany Keenan. M.D., Sherry Sterling, R.N. are among the many. Joseph Barnell, too, is a hero.
Joseph is truly an altruistic thought leader and global citizen in the field of disaster relief. He — and his team — are developing a crisis communications standard which will improve the world’s response to future disasters.
Other Stories by Jim Luce
Fonkoze Helps Rebuild Haiti through Microfinance Following Earthquake (HuffPo)
Dr. Judy on the Trauma of Disasters – like Haitian Earthquake (HuffPo)
Orphans International Movement to Help Kids Around the World – Including Haiti (HuffPo)
As if They Were His Own: Former Toastmaster Finds Courage to Transform the World’s Orphanages (Toastmasters)
Two Major Haiti Relief Benefits at NYC’s Historic Webster Hall (HuffPo)
Orphans International Worldwide Haiti Survives Second Shock in Jacmel (HuffPo)
Orphans in Afghanistan Thrive Due To CharityHelp International (Daily Kos)
NBC’s Brian Williams: Changing the World for the Better (HuffPo)
Bill Clinton: Elder Statesman to the World (Daily Kos)
Interview with the Red Cross Secretary General in Geneva (HuffPo)
CharityHelp: An Electronic Bridge to Kids in Need (HuffPo)
Fonkoze: Haitian Diaspora Unites Across U.S. (HuffPo)
Orphans International Worldwide: Ending Orphanages Globally (HuffPo)
The Mission of Orphans International Worldwide (Blogspot)
Orphans International: Raising Global Citizens (HuffPo)
Jim Luce: First One Orphan, Then Many More (New York Times)
Child Kidnap Fears Spark Mob Chase (BBC)
Pending: Alternative Power Looms Large Off-the-Grid for Connectivity (HuffPo)

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