refugee



Katrina refugee telecom problems you can solve now

Phil Wolff on September 2, 2005 02:20 AM

Houston Astrodome's refugee city will be online in the next few hours. There are several telephony needs to meet.

Needed Now:

  1. Letting refugees call support services and family. This could be as simple as a bank of VoIP phone booths.
  2. Letting refugees receive calls in the stadium. More complicated, but doable.
Longer term.
  1. Pager or mobile phone service at the stadium. As services are committed, families found, you must be able to locate individuals among the thousands.
  2. Following refugees as they are relocated from the stadium. People in diaspora move across area codes and need numbers that follow the person, not the place. No roaming charges, please.
  3. Supporting volunteers and staff working in the disaster zones and in refugee service. You want to make them productive. And you want them to stay motivated; many will be away from home for long periods. Free connectivity, telephony, videophony, conferencing, etc.
Deeper needs.
  1. Forwarding calls made to sector phone numbers. Redirect calls to washed out home phones to new mobile or voip accounts. This provides business and home continuity amid a diaspora that has torn about homes, workplaces, schools. Crucial for personal and regional economic recovery.

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