Update #1 on FSM/Typhoon Maysak and call for volunteers

Every deployment brings its own challenges and its own.

In Nepal, for example, there was the incredible urgency to get information processed as quickly as possible combined with managing hundreds of volunteers within SBTF and in other groups.

In FSM the challenge is tracking information down. It’s a small, very remote country. Finding even basic information (like population figures per island) is a real piece of detective work, following leads from one document to another. Many volunteers have been doing the online equivalent of searching for needles in haystacks.

What unites these deployments of course is that fact that there are real human beings affected by natural disasters. In FSM some of the affected municipalities lost 100% of of their buildings. All their houses have been lost.

Our task is to help YPDR make sure they can get to the affected communities and start work as quickly as possible.

Despite the paucity of information out there volunteers have already tracked down a wide range of resources that are going to really help get things moving on the ground. And we’ve only been running for 24hrs.

If you haven’t signed up yet, please do. There is plenty of useful work to be done. We could do with some people with mapping / geolocation skills along with media monitoring and search skills.

It’s a great deployment to join if you’re quite new to SBTF. We have a training room for new volunteers and a bunch of very helpful experienced volunteers here to help and support you.

http://standbytaskforce.ning.com/forum/topics/deployment-to-support-the-federated-states-of-micronesia-starts-0?commentId=6313985%3AComment%3A40802