{"id":904,"date":"2018-05-18T11:54:17","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T11:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/?p=904"},"modified":"2018-05-30T11:53:22","modified_gmt":"2018-05-30T11:53:22","slug":"critical-connections-enable-life-saving-assistance-niger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/critical-connections-enable-life-saving-assistance-niger\/","title":{"rendered":"The desert where you call the ambulance by WhatsApp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6H7N0RXPc20?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>By Eimear McNamara, ICT Communication Assistant, Geneva<\/em><\/p>\n<p>DIFFA, NIGER: For the men, women and children forced to flee Boko Haram\u2019s violence in Nigeria\u2019s north-east, Sayam Forage refugee camp is an oasis of hope surrounded by harsh, unforgiving desert.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/6H7N0RXPc20\">A new video released by UNHCR<\/a> captures the communications hurdles presented by the camp\u2019s remote location in the Nigerien region of Diffa, some 15 hours by road from the capital Niamey: \u201cSayam Forage is in the middle of nowhere &#8211; you have the impression that someone just planted a camp in the middle of the desert,\u201d Alphonse Munyaneza, Head of UNHCR\u2019s Sub-Office for Diffa, reveals in the video. \u201cThere are no phone lines there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Enter, the Refugee Emergency Telecommunications Sector (RETS), a UNHCR-led mechanism for coordinating the communications technology response in situations of displacement. To provide our partners with access to reliable connectivity services, RETS <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/internet-boosts-assistance-protection-for-people-displaced-by-boko-haram\/\">successfully deployed<\/a> the government of Luxembourg\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emergency.lu\/\">emergency.lu<\/a> solution at UNHCR\u2019s Diffa office, wirelessly linking it to sites including Sayam Forage camp. \u201cConnectivity gives you more efficiency in your service delivery,\u201d Alphonse says. \u201cWhen we received the support of the Refugee Emergency Telecommunications Sector, it was a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Partner organizations, such as Action Pour le Bien Etre (APBE), can now carry out lifesaving activities thanks to the deployment, as emphasized by APBE\u2019s Head of Office, Dr Mamane Sani Abdoul-Moumouni: \u201cBefore, people couldn\u2019t even call us. Now, they can contact us through WhatsApp and Skype, and we can immediately send an ambulance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the video, Elh Ridouane Ahmed Tyar, Refugee President for Sayam Forage camp, lists the positive effects the camp has had upon the lives and wellbeing of its residents: \u201cHere are people who arrived stranded, barefoot, from basically nothing. We now have houses, we have our security intact, we have hospitals, we have schools.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Each of these areas of assistance has been advanced and enhanced by connectivity, and the work of RETS in Niger is about more than a simple internet connection. Alessandra Morelli, Representative for UNHCR Niger, recognizes the broader, more profound impacts of establishing links through technology: \u201cThe connectivity project is allowing partners to speak the same language, to understand the same priorities. It\u2019s inclusiveness. And through our inclusiveness we can guarantee that others are not left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Watch the video in English and French: <\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/6H7N0RXPc20\"><strong>Internet boosts assistance for people displaced by Boko Haram<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Ly6kuXmKV9o\"><strong>L&#8217;internet renforce l&#8217;assistance aux personnes d\u00e9plac\u00e9es<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>To find out more about UNHCR\u2019s work in responding to the Nigeria situation, <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/nigeria-emergency.html\"><em>click here<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Internet connectivity can make a huge difference to relief activities and the lives of refugees. For the men, women and children of Sayam Forage camp in Niger, who fled Boko Haram\u2019s violence in Nigeria, the camp is now an oasis of hope surrounded by harsh, unforgiving desert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","hentry","category-digital-inclusion","category-digitalinclusionfeatured","post_format-post-format-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":952,"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions\/952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}