The Context

The Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004 left at least 122,000 dead and 114,000 missing in Indonesia’s Aceh Province alone.  Four hundred thousand survivors sought shelter in temporary camps and shelters or with friends and relatives.  The pace of restoring a devastated province is slow.  One of the most pressing needs is for locally relevant news and information.  Those in camps and temporary housing interviewed often declare they do not know what is happening.  Over a year after the disaster, this lack of information can still put lives at risk and can easily breed lethargy and despair.

Emergency and Disaster Response

An emergency, like the one in Aceh, is a situation in which the life or well-being of a population could be threatened unless immediate and appropriate action is taken.

The mandate of an emergency response team is to help disaster-affected communities return to villages, resume livelihoods and revitalise social structures.  To achieve this mandate, teams must undertake massive logistic operations that involve communication, search and rescue, damage and loss assessments and the provision of relief supplies.

During disasters, communication systems are likely to be disrupted and utilities may be non-functional.  The operations of an emergency response team are crippled by the inability to communicate and the inability to access power.  Information dissemination and access to light and power become key determinants of a successful response.  Aid workers need be able to coordinate their own actions as well as the actions of displaced communities.  Access to radio could satisfy this need.  However, it is unlikely that displaced or refugee populations would have access to a radio or the money to buy batteries.  Access to light and power is also critical as search and rescue operations, evacuations, and life-saving medical surgeries, need to continue throughout the night.

It is within this context that Freeplay’s wind-up radios and flashlights and stand-alone chargers, the hand-powered mobile phone charger and the foot-powered portable energy source, are most appropriate.

Here are some recent projects in this area: