Demand Based Relief
Demand Based Relief
From HTN
In the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in December 2004, aid was flowing in from all quarters. However, as in every disaster situation, the relief material and services supplied were based on the best judgment of the donors and a lot of such material supplied, were not what the beneficiaries required. The picture shows clothes received from all over the world lying waste.
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Challenge Overview
The challenge was to bring in a paradigm shift in the way disaster relief is managed, by assessing the requirements in real-time, managing the supply of goods and coordinating the efforts of over 400 donors agencies in delivering goods and services effectively.
Population Impacted
About 300,000 people affected by the tsunami living near the coast in Nagapattinam (Nagai) District of Tamilnadu in India.
Solution
We decided to tackle it using brute force. We stationed 72 volunteers all along the 107 KMs of the coastline. They would collect the requirements from the affected villagers and travel to the Collectorate once every day. In the evening the data would be collected and given to the NGOs, other Civil Society organizations and the Government. The next day the same routine would be repeated.
Soon we saw problems in this setup. The travel by the volunteers took a long time and it affected data collection. There was considerable delay in getting the data (a day is quite a long time in disaster situations). The quantity of data received was huge and sifting through it was getting to be difficult in-spite of the 20 to 30 volunteers on the job. By now a tent was erected outside the Collectorate to house for us to use.
While the Cellular Phones solved the problem of communication, they increased the problem of data management. There were about 1000 requirements coming in each day and on the other side we had registered about 450 NGO's. Mixing and matching was proving difficult.
The data crunching problem was solved with the arrival of personal computers. About 4 PC's were purchased, the tent had now become fully functional with power supply was drawn from nearby office with a generator and UPS for emergencies.
A mixing and matching program, using simple databases and spreadsheets was put in place. Once the NGO names were found by the computer, the volunteers would call up the NGOs and let them know where their services were required. We had truly become an NGO Coordination Centre.
The District administration was very happy to have some basis for distribution of materials. They turned over all their stocks of food-grains and other useful material to our group. This called for a simple “Inventory Management” and logistics software, which was developed on the spot by software engineers from SIFFS.
A Web-Site using a content management system (XOOPS) was hosted on our server in San Jose to inform the requirements to International NGOs and other from the far corners of the Nation. The NGO list with "contact numbers" & "field of expertise" along with the village wise requirements list were uploaded daily using a GPRS link.
Links were provided from the Government of Tamilnadu State and Government of India sites to our web-site making us semi-official for some time. This considerably altered the inflow of materials and we started receiving calls from all over the world.
In short, the solution involved,
- Cell phones for communication,
- PC's for Requirements Database and a simple Inventory Management System.
- Web-site with a content management system for information dissemination.
- A GPRS data card for internet access.
Beneficiaries
- Tsunami Affected Population
- Aid workers
- NGOs and Civil Society Organizations
- International NGOs
- Government of Tamilnadu
Results
We were able to bring in a paradigm shift in the way “Relief” is managed in disaster situations. From simply distributing what is available, we moved on to a means of real-time assessment of the requirements and managing the donors so as to get optimal results, without wastage of time and materials.
The Government recognized our effort. Even the United Nations special envoy for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Relief, President Bill Clinton, came down to the Nagapattinam District to applaud the "Public Private Partnership" in disaster management.
Someone coined "Demand Based Relief" to describe what we had done. This was supposedly the first place where it was done and it would have been impossible with simple technology intervention from IEEE volunteers.
Project Team
Volunteers from South Indian Federation of Fishermens Society, SNEHA and some other NGOs, Volunteers from every walk of life from Students from IRMA, IIT, IIM and many colleges near and far. Government officials and ordinary people. Three or four crucial volunteers from IEEE led by Amarnath Raja and Satish Babu. Three persons from the NGO sector who took leadership during this phase were Sushma from Abhiyan, Vivek from SIFFS and Stan from Accord.
Obstacles and How Addressed
Communications: Cell Phones
Excess of Data: Personal Computers
Data Dissemination: Instant Web-site through Content Management Systems
Internet Access: GPRS PCMCIA card on a laptop, shared over an Ethernet LAN.
Current Status
The “Relief” phase lasted 45 days, after which the system became redundant and was dismantled. The NGO Coordination Centre continued to operate well into the “Rehabilitation” phase which lasted for more than 3 years with a different mandate. NCRC as it was called in the rehabilitation phase, was also actively supported by IEEE volunteers. But that is a different story - elsewhere on the HTN.
Other Humanitarian Projects by IEEE Kerala Section
1. Wireless_Network_for_Tsunami_Rehabilitation