Blog post

emergency.lu Delivers Rapid Deployment Kit to ETC in South Sudan

 The Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) in South Sudan recently took delivery of a new emergency.lu Rapid Deployment Kit which will replace the Regular Deployment Kit previously deployed in Renk.

Both kits are a key component of the ETC response solution which was jointly developed by emergency.lu, Ericsson Response and the World Food Programme (WFP) to provide voice telephony and data connectivity services in humanitarian emergencies anywhere in the world.

The Regular Deployment Kit, consisting of a 2.4m transportable satellite antenna, is generally used for longer-term emergencies. The Rapid Deployment Kit, however, is more flexible; its inflatable antenna allowing much quicker deployment and installation.

For the ETC in South Sudan, this is perfect. Two Regular Deployment Kits are already serving the aid community in Maban and Yida. But with potential humanitarian crises in both Jonglei and Abyei, the ETC needs the Rapid Deployment Kit to respond fast, and at very short notice.

Training on how to deploy the kit was delivered by emergency.lu's Gilles Hoffman, to eight ICT staff from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Oxfam, Plan International, RedR UK, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and WFP.

"The training was a good introduction to emergency communications and highly mobile technology," says Ayub Maswa, an ICT Analyst and LAN Manager from UNFPA. "The beauty of it was that it was so hands on and to-the-point. The instructor was also very approachable, interactive and eager to impart his knowledge to the team."

Gilles Hoffman gets to work
The participants begin to inflate the Rapid Deployment Kit.
Once inflated, participants make some final adjustments to the Rapid Deployment Kit.