Across coastal northeast Japan, emergency officials face a common problem: the basics of search and relief operations — roads, communications, electricity, water — have simply vanished before the tsunami's destructive force.
On the ground, all big relief operations have communications centres where aid workers go to send e-mails, read the latest security updates and study satellite maps of the affected area.
The company will help relief providers establish communications after restoring emergency lines.
She has two decades of experience in international development and humanitarian relief program management, communications, fundraising and teaching/training.
But supported by financing from underground charities and fund-raising by families abroad, it has also set up a network of pro-rebel organisations tackling the community's medical needs, communications, humanitarian relief, education and sanitation, and ensuring something that approximates to the rule of law.
"There have been some weaknesses in managing the relief operation," Minendra Rijal, communications minister, told Nepal's Kantipur Television.
FEMA has not seen a test on the scale of Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, when delays in delivering emergency relief, failures in its communications system, and problems with the emergency housing program combined to produce widespread criticism.
They should be recognised as key partners of humanitarian action," he says, noting the role of private firms in organising satellite communications for relief agencies during the Nepal earthquake and in fighting Ebola in west Africa.
The Partnership for Disaster Relief has already eased communications about on-the-ground needs by working with the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce and Labor, and other organizations.
Jana brings over 18 years of experience in communications, disaster relief and humanitarian assistance to her position as director of international communications for the American Red Cross.
