Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS TERA Saving Lives By SMS Robin Burton

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS Who We Are The largest humanitarian organization in the world 187 National Societies 100,000 employees 14 million volunteers worldwide

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS Why We Are Best Placed To Help Disaster Affected People An auxiliary relationship to national governments Most governments contract with the national Red Cross or Red Crescent Society to deliver certain relief services in time of disaster Governments also provide substantial funding Therefore usually able to bring many more resources to bear in time of disaster compared with NGOs

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS Who We Are IFRC Vision Three strategic objectives (S2020): 1. Save lives, protect livelihoods, and to help communities to prepare for, and recover from, disasters and crises 2. Enable healthy and safer living 3. Promote social inclusion and a culture of non-violence

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS What is Beneficiary Communications? A beneficiary is a person who receives a service from the Red Cross. In other terms, beneficiaries are our customers. Beneficiary communications is about empowering people. It uses communication channels to effectively connect humanitarian programming with the people they are designed to support. Beneficiary communications is a global IFRC initiative. We have a worldwide license agreement with Trilogy International Partners and plan to deploy in 40+ countries. A beneficiary is a person who receives a service from the Red Cross. In other terms, beneficiaries are our customers. Beneficiary communications is about empowering people. It uses communication channels to effectively connect humanitarian programming with the people they are designed to support. Beneficiary communications is a global IFRC initiative. We have a worldwide license agreement with Trilogy International Partners and plan to deploy in 40+ countries.

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS Your Network Can Save Lives “An SMS from the Red Cross … gave me more hope” Andrena, Annexe Camp, Haiti

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS Location Targeted SMS  Prompt warnings of floods, hurricanes, fires  Information on where to find medical help, clean water, food, shelter  Advice on what to do  Feedback showing where aid of various types is most needed  Increase the efficiency of Red Cross efforts on the ground

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS Automated Response  System identifies key words e.g. “Cholera” and responds with an automatic message giving advice  Allows team to handle extreme high volumes of demand  Provides statistics to help manage demand

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS With Minimal Disruption to Your Network  Control always remains with you  You decide the rate at which messages can be sent  Localised messages  Minimises the number sent  Increases the impact  Timed messages  Off peak messages  Operated by specially trained Red Cross staff

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS Why SMS?  The most basic service on a GSM network  Will be the first to be restored after a disaster  Uses very little network capacity  Message stored on the mobile phone  Supports “run and tell” to get messages to those without a working mobile phone  Can be forwarded to people on other networks

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS Where Did TERA Come From?  It has been designed by Trilogy, a mobile operator in conjunction with the Red Cross, addressing practical implementation and operation concerns for both sides  Designed in response to the earthquake disaster in Haiti

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS Performance in Haiti  Delivered 70 Million messages  Prompted over 1 Million people to respond and ask for help and information  Improved effectiveness of aid effort

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS How We Used the TERA SMS System Campaigns - Hurricane preparedness - Cholera - Violence prevention - First aid tips Emergency warning - Hurricane Irene - Tropical Storm Emily - Cholera increases Assessments - How useful are hygiene kits? - Livelihoods training Programmes - Water trucking is ending - Remember to come to training - Anti-fraud SMS

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS Results in Haiti 25% of people have received a Red Cross SMS Many others had information “passed on” SMS about weather and health most popular 95% said SMS was useful 90% acted on the SMS

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS The message about cholera was great. It explained how to prevent cholera by washing hands. It was very useful for me because I didn’t know what precautions to take. I shared the message with my sister, who has a baby. Naomi Fils-Aimé, Champs Mars Red Cross SMS talked about hurricane and what to do in heavy rains – like don’t cross rivers, keep the children close to you. These messages have been very helpful and useful. I hope I’ll be receiving more SMS, because even if I have nothing to feed myself, an SMS from Red Cross will make me feel ok and give me more hope. Andrena, Annexe Camp What do people think? I would like to be subscribed to the Red Cross SMS service because I have a Digicel phone and I have never received an SMS from the Red Cross. Caller to Red Cross radio show on

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS FIRST RELEASE (2010) CHOLERA PREVENTION (2011) STORMS & HURRICANE PREVENTION (2011) MULTIOPERATION (2012) TERA v1 HAITI Earthquake relief tasks Logistics Coordination TERA v1.4 Disease Dissemination Prevention TERA v1.5 Early Warning Alert System TERA v2 Global Deployment Mobile Devices Support The Development of TERA

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS What We Are Asking You To Do  Give us access to your network in advance of any disaster  Under clear terms of usage  Provide two simple servers and a small Oracle licence  Work with our team to implement the system (about 25 man days of effort)  Provide us with SMS messaging free of cost  Except in emergencies messages will be sent off peak  Messages are also localised to avoid “SPAM” effect

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS What We Will Do  Connect your network to our regional disaster control centre  Ready to move into action immediately it is needed  Co-operate with other agencies to minimise the requests made to you for help  Control usage to minimise the impact on your network  Report to you on the usage that we have made  Treat any information about your network or customers in full commercial confidence

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS Safeguards For Your Business  Only sends messages to active mobile handsets, reducing congestion due to undelivered messages  You are in full control, throttling the number of messages available for relief work  Sensitive information, such as cell site locations, can be hidden from Red Cross operators  Use is governed by a mutually negotiated SLA, guaranteeing that the system is not abused  Full audit trail maintained to support this SLA  Full roles and rights system structure

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS Why You Should Do This Now  It is the right thing to do  You will give your customers the best chance of surviving a disaster  You also give them another reason for choosing your network  The cost and effort is very little by comparison with the good that you will do  It is estimated that in Haiti an investment of about $50K by the network delivered as much as $3 Million of effective benefit to the aid effort

Saving lives, changing minds. TERA Saving Lives By SMS Shall We Get Started?

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE TERA PROJECT PLEASE CONTACT: ROBIN BURTON, TELECOM CONSULTANT TEL. : THIS PRESENTATION IS PUBLISHED BY INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF RED CROSS AND RED CRESCENT SOCIETIES P.O. BOX 372 CH-1211 GENEVA 19 SWITZERLAND TEL.: FAX.: