On World Humanitarian Day, Inmarsat joins Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) in recognising the people who take risks on a daily basis to help others.
On this day in 2003, 22 aid workers were killed in a bombing at the UN headquarters in Baghdad. Every year since, World Humanitarian Day has paid tribute to all those affected by humanitarian crises.
This year’s theme is ‘Inspiring the World’s Humanity’. Inmarsat-sponsored TSF has created a poster marking World Humanitarian Day and showing the vital difference a communications lifeline makes to people caught up in a disaster.
It features the words of a victim of the tropical cyclone that ripped through Vanuatu in the South Pacific in March, leaving 65,000 people in need of shelter: “Our families living away from us are worried about us, and we are worried about them. We are thankful that TSF has come to our country to reconnect us with our loved ones.”
Inmarsat supports TSF with free equipment and financial support. Armed with IsatPhone Pro satellite phones and BGAN terminals, TSF teams travel to the scene of manmade and natural disasters all over the world to restore communications and help co-ordinate relief efforts by first responders.
In the past year, TSF has deployed to Nepal, Vanuatu, the Thai/Burmese border and the Philippines, as well as continuing its work in Syria and Iraq and emergency preparedness programmes globally.
