12 Jan 2011

Responding to Disasters: Telecentres can h elp?

News sources report that the floods and earth slips have displaced over 830,000 people in the Eastern, North central and Central provinces of Sri Lanka and destroyed over 132,000 acres of agriculture land. Government requested public support to assist over 800,000 flood victims needing drinking water, clothing, mats and milk food for the children.

During tsunami we saw how people helped victims; It took several years to recover from after effects. These floods are much worse than we thought it would be. At least 300,000 children are displaced. Right now the children are hungry and need clean water; their health would be in danger staying in camps. When floods recede more problems will emerge. Their houses are damaged; their parents farms destroyed and their books and cloths are washed away. Their schools destroyed furniture and records washed away.
Their education will be effected long term basis.

At this moment Sri Lanka needs help. ICT and Telecentre networks can be an immense value by

- Taking the message to communities
- For creating and sharing social media
- Advocating support from contacts
- Becoming local collection centers
- Becoming distributing, supporting and information centers in disaster areas

If Telecentres can create a value for community, in this national disaster, their purpose would be justified demonstrating their value in society.

Teachers of Shilpa Sayura have initiated a drive for supporting children education rebuilding. Our Team is visiting disaster locations to collect information and asses needs of children for planning support during and after floods.

Our team will report from field on

http://childreninthefloods.blogspot.com/

Telecentres deep rooted in communities can help managing disasters in a collective manner.

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