This message is received at the Sarvodaya incident command center and is processed to deploy the required resources." For example, several students evading the flood waters are stranded on a building and need immediate assistance. "When Sarvodaya first-responders assess the damage and report the incidents for rescue and relief actions they call Freedom Fone to leave a message. SMS alerts will be sent to a network of trained individuals in each village - known as first responders - with an additional request to phone Sarvodaya's Freedom Fone lines for more detailed information about the evolving crisis.įeedback, situation reports and requests for information and help from the field will be facilitated through the Leave-a-Message function, as Nuwan Waidanyatha describes further: Sarvodaya plans to combine SMS alerts (sent using Sahana or other bulk SMS applications) with Freedom Fone's Voice Menus function to share important updates with villagers. Nuwan Waidanyatha, research fellow at LIRNEasia That's where we found Freedom Fone very useful." If we could deliver a short wake-up text message and a localised descriptive voice message, that would be much more effective. "The character limitation of SMS limits the amount of information we can send when alerting the first responders in an emergency. This creates a great need for voice based communications to complement an initial SMS text alert. In such situations, the rapidity of response and accuracy of the information provided by any disaster management system is of the essence. Whether during a flood, earthquake or tsunami, governments or emergency services usually have a very short time to send out a warning alert to a large and diverse population around the affected area. They began working together with one of Sri Lanka's biggest NGO's, Sarvodaya ( in June 2011 to use Freedom Fone in emergency response operations. LIRNEasia ( are a regional information and communication technology (ICT) think tank active across the Asia Pacific.
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