Two AIT Master’s students -- Serena Amatya and Niraj Bhujel of
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) focussed on TSF
operations, while another Doctoral student student, Md. Shahabuddin
conducted field work on critical infrastructure. Both Serena and Shahab
Uddin are affiliated with AIT’s Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation and
Management (DPMM), while Niraj is studying in Information and
Communication Technology (ICT). The TSF team included the Head of
Mission Florent Bervas, along with Alexander James Thomas Florent, Paul
Margie, and Justin Waller of TSF.
Serena, who is now back at AIT, says: “Our first task was to conduct
needs assessment at Kurintar, and Dhading areas.” The team realized
that villages in the upper-hills were affected in the Dhading area, and
a team of TSF-AIT began providing emergency communication services in
this area. In Sindhupalchowk, they focused on providing help to UN
Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United
Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC). The last place
where they conducted a needs assessment was in Nuwakot area in Nepal.
Md. Shahab Uddin, who spent a month in Nepal, analyzed the critical
infrastructure interdependencies and their dynamics. Ten aspects were
analysed including hospitals, schools, fire brigade, police station,
local administration, water supply, electricity, telecom, road network,
and gas/fuel supplies. He narrated a local saying in Kirtipur which
states that the entire area is lying on top of a single rock, and that
is why it does not suffer extensive damage. “It is true that Kirtipur
suffered lesser damage compared to other areas,” he adds.
AIT students have regularly provided emergency telecommunication
services along with TSF, and they were also active during the Japan
earthquake, Pakistan floods, and the Indonesian tsunami. During the
Nepal operations, TSF teams provided 299,750 calling minutes to 7430
beneficiaries (1581 households).
AIT student Serena Amatya providing
emergency communication services at Lamosanghu, Sindhupalchowk, Nepal.
She was among the three students who went to Nepal following the
earthquake.