Story of Kamran Sarwar (Actionaid's IT Manager in Islamabad) and Dipak Basu (NetHope's Executive Director, emeritus and lead on NetHope's Relief Committee) ... coordinating NetHope member responses following the Oct. 8, 2005 earthquake in north Pakistan.
- Within 2 days, Brian Carlson, WVI, arrives in Pakistan with an NRK (Network Relief Kit) and sets up remote communications
- Within 3 days: daily situation calls being, led by Dipak
- Within 9 days, two corp. pledges (Cisco and Yahoo), solicited by Dipak
- Within 16 days, on-the-ground weekly coordination meetings began, led by Kamran
- Within 19 days, VSAT order draft sent, Skylogic agrees to special discounts
- Takes another 2 months to get VSATs installed due to obstacles in customs (lesson learned: bring the equipment with you!)
- Imagine if all steps happened as fast as the first one, in the first three weeks?
Timeline
Sat., Oct. 8 - massive earthquake hits North Pakistan
Sun., Oct. 9 - Greg Campbell reported in-route to Islamabad, carrying NRK; Dipak begins gathering VSAT and NRK requirements from members
Mon., Oct. 10, Greg to coordinate NetHope/ICT on-the-ground response; to arrive Oct. 12; Greg will attend UN meetings
Tue., Oct. 11, Dipak starts daily situation calls
Tue., Oct. 11, Peter Heather (ActionAid) reports Kamran Sarwar, ActionAid IT Manager in Pakistan, is coordinating licensing for VSAT imports.
Wed., Oct. 12, Greg arrives in Islamabad with NRK and RBGAN
Thu., Oct. 13, Kamran volunteers to act as NetHope's ICT coordinator in Pakistan for the quake relief effort.
Fri. Oct. 14, Skylogic offers VSATs for Pakistan at non-discounted rates
Sat. Oct. 15, Cisco pledges $20K
Sun. Oct 16, Dipak sends solicitation to HP, Yahoo, Accenture, IBM, Sun
Mon., Oct. 17, Skylogic offers 3 months free service for Pakistan VSATs
Mon., Oct. 17, Yahoo pledges $20K
Wed., Oct 19 - First NetHope group meeting in Islamabad; Kamran hosted; Greg attended.
Sat., Oct. 22, Kamran distributed meeting minutes and contact list
Mon. Oct. 24, weekly ICT sharing/planning meetings begin in Islamabad; Kamran chairing
Wed., Oct 26, Dipak distributes tracking spreadsheet summarizing member VSAT requests, totalling 14 units (this will become a key reporting doc.)
Thu., Oct. 27, Dipak expands NetHope distribution list to include Pakistan team members
Thu., Oct. 27, Kamran distributes final contact and address summary list for VSAT licensing and shipments.
Fri. Oct. 28, Kamran confirms six member agency licenses received
Sat., Oct. 29, First photos posted on the NetHope web site
Nov. 2 - first VSAT arrived in customs; delayed due to EID holiday.
Nov. 10, NRK training conducted in Islamabad at STC offices by Mr. Shamim from Cisco (Shamim Pirzada was on the tech team for the NRK.)
Nov. 14-15, VSAT training held in Islamabad at WVI offices by Mr. Oosman from Trinity Systems and Network Solutions.
Nov. 16, Second shipment of majority of VSATs arrived. Stuck in customs due to lack of airway bills with the units. Need to reschedule Mr. Oosamn trip for installations
Dec. 1 - Shamim reports six VSAT units finally released from customs
Dec. 7 - 10 - Mr. Oosman returns from Afghanistan and installs six (9 or 12?) VSATs (6 weeks after order placed with Skylogic?!?)
Dec. 6 - Pakistan relief conf. calls merge into weekly phase II project calls led by Joe Simmons
Dec. 13 - Kamran confirms 9 VSAT installs completed for phase 1; 5 to follow in phase 2
Dec. 27 - Additional STC and CARE VSATs ship from Skylogic
10/27/2005, Dipak Basu wrote:
Hi Molly,
The NetHope membership owes a huge sense of indebtedness to Kamran Sarwar, Actionaid's IT Manager in Islamabad.
From the day Peter obtained Actionaid approval for his engagement, Kamran has worked round the clock to create miracles as leader of the NetHope Working Group in Islamabad supporting our members' relief efforts. He has pulled a busy outwardly-oriented set of individuals into a coordinated body that even the UN envies (we've heard from several UN bodies), taken multiple initiatives toward easing the acquisition of ICT equipment, and has funnelled and cleared government applications for satellite licenses and customs waivers.
As a result, in less than 3 weeks after the earthquake VSATs, NRKs and RBGANs are already on the ground and many units are in the pipeline. Most importantly, Kamran has provided everyone with a sense of confidence in adopting IT for relief operations in a very difficult country.
Obviously, this has made my job immensely easier.
The intensity of the overall NetHope contribution is expected to peak in the first couple of weeks of November with multiple installations and training sessions in several Pakistani locations. It should then reduce fairly rapidly as set processes take over and the focus moves from relief to reconstruction.
I would like to recommend a not insubstantial token of our appreciation for Kamran's contribution, to be handed to him around mid-November. I'm not sure exactly what would be appropriate - perhaps you, Paramu (Kamran's boss) and Peter can offer ideas.
Thanks,
Dipak Basu
NetHope Relief Lead
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Phone: 408.526.4514
Mobile: 408.859.9588
Email: dbasu@cisco.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Molly Tschang [mailto:mtschang@nethope.org]
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 7:45 PM
To: Kamran Sarwar
Cc: Peter.Heather@actionaid.org; dbasu@nethope.org; ehapp@savechildren.org
Subject: RE: Tracking spreadsheet
Kamran -- Just a note to acknowledge the herculean effort that you personally are putting forth. The whole team is working very effectively and your role is a significant reason for this. On behalf of all the NetHope members, thanks for everything you're doing. You're making a tangible improvement to the team's overall impact!
Best,
molly
mailto:Kamran.Sarwar@actionaid.org
|
|