Evolving technology has potential to change the face of humanitarian work

Angel Buitrago is an IT officer in the World Food Programme (WFP)’s regional bureau in Panama.

Connecting to the internet through mobile devices nowadays is part of daily life. All telecommunications were disrupted, though, when Hurricane Maria hit Dominica last year.

An outlandish big white ball stands out among the school, a church with a twisted cross and a dozen fishing boats in the community of Saint Sauveur.

Located in northwestern Dominica with a population of almost 2,000 people, Wesley was destroyed following Hurricane Maria’s passage, leaving its inhabitants in a power blackout, without mobile network coverage or Internet connectivity.

As Martin Luther King Jr once said: “If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

Nowhere is the basic human need to communicate more apparent than in a disaster situation. Whether it is to find a lost loved one, or gain access to vital supplies or information, one of the first things we reach for is our mobile phone.