Introduction

In mid-November 2013, roughly ten days after Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Central Philippines, The Roddenberry Foundation funded the deployment of a Disaster Response Team (DRT) for a 10 day targeted mission to identify gaps in addressing the needs of victims and to provide guidance in the use of new technologies and processes for disaster relief. In addition, the team was tasked with establishing a place for such new capabilities in the design of future response plans.

The success of that mission prompted The Roddenberry Foundation to support a one year pilot project in early 2014, creating the Roddenberry Disaster Response Team to provide the following integrated services:

•  Water Distribution: Water sourced from within the disaster zone and purified on site to provide clean water for drinking, cooking and medical care.

• Rapid Telecommunications Damage Assessment: The deployment of teams trained in the evaluation and reporting of damage to communications infrastructure.

That pilot project was successful and the Disaster Response Team will now continue through 2015 and for the foreseeable future. 

The Foundation's implementing partner, Seattle-based Infinitum Humanitarian Systems (IHS), has extensive experience working in war-torn, post-conflict areas and low-resource communities in Latin America, Africa and Asia. IHS will work closely with InSTEDD, a TED Prize NGO that develops open source technology tools to serve vulnerable populations.

This handbook is designed to introduce the team to the public and to serve as a reference for members of the Roddenberry DRT. Each of us brings particular areas of expertise to the effort, but it is our combined range of skills—spanning everything from internal water, power and communications tools to deployment preparedness, financial accounting and radio protocols—that will serve as our common foundation.  

This handbook is a living document. The content is dynamic and references will be updated and added as needed. 

Eric Rasmussen MD, MDM, FACP

pdf handbooks

About

Pre-Mission

Field Logistics

Water Disaster Center

RTAT

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