Prepositioning relationships and technology to better

communicate with communities in disaster response

“I was not informed of last week’s floods, nor [of] today’s floods. I do not know why they are letting us wade into dirty water when all they need to do is, for example, put up a loud siren”

Marcos Bonete, 49, Manila in August 2012

“Food used to stay overnight because there was no communication. Now we get information immediately, even when trucks are still in Isiolo […] and we go ready for distribution”

Community member, Oldonyiro, Kenya

@ICRC ने�पा�ल मा�हा�भुकं� पा : कंसै�ल� आफ्ने� हारा�एकं� आफन्त खो�जि� रा�ख्ने भुएकं� छ भुने� हा�म्रो� #familylinks वे�ब सै�इत मा� ने�मा ल�खो�उने हा�ल� http://ow.ly/3xM0sr

Nepali Tweet : anyone looking for a missing relative can register on the ICRC / Nepali Red Cross family links website

“Thank you for giving us a chance to express ourselves”

Listener calling into an on-air radio interview

“The information we could provide was just about our programme, but communities needed a bigger range of information than that”

People need “news you can use”

“In the weeks following the disaster, telecommunications companies played a key role in providing mobile base stations as well as a limited number of handsets to evacuation centres”

“The Japanese disaster highlights the problem of the information divide between those who are digitally literate […] and those who cannot access resources online”

In crisis, the Japanese – a nation of tv watchers – turned to their radios