U.S. : +1 (720) 733 0307
U.K. : +44 20 7292 8691
KENYA. : +254 20 660 2000
Famine Relief Helpline
For people in need and living in hardship areas across Kenya, finding a communication channel to place an emergency call can be quite a task. According to the Humanitarian Services Committee of the Government of Kenya and the National Disasters Operation Centre (NDOC), emergency relief operations in the country are always heavily dependent on goodwill from international humanitarian organizations such as The Red Cross; well wishers and media. More often than not, people in need do not have channels to notify authorities. Relief efforts are also often scattered and only gain prominence if publicized in the media or as a result of a catastrophe. With all these disjointed efforts and lack of communication channels, the Government identified a gap to develop long term tangible solution(s) uniting and channeling emergency and relief requests and information to distressed Kenyans.
Finding a solution
To this end, the Ministry of Information and Communication made a request to KenCall earlier in the year as part of a wider appeal to the local business community to assist in viable famine solutions aimed at addressing the drought situation that had ravaged remote areas of the country. On receiving the request, Nicholas Nesbitt KenCall’s founder and CEO, immediately gathered a team to address the challenge and within three days the team had devised and resourced Kenya’s first famine emergency relief phone number and operation centre.
Using the Helpline
To access the service, people in need placed a call to the 109 freephone number informing the National Disaster Operations Centre (NDOC) of their situation. Each day, KenCall’s highly trained customer service agents received thousands of calls from people in drought-hit areas. KenCall’s response centre then produced a detailed daily report helping the NDOC understand where aid was needed. The NDOC then used this data to coordinate its team and deliver resources to these areas.
Results
By setting up the response centre rapidly, KenCall was able to make the 109 number synonymous with the crisis and ensure that those in peril knew where to call for aid. Within the first week of operation, the emergency number had grown from taking 4,000 calls on the first day to over 12,000 per day by the end of the week.
The Future
Presently, due to its enormous success the government has retained the service in order to maintain free information flow with people in disaster situations. Recently, assistance was given to a man with two wives and ten children who had not eaten in days. KenCall agents received the call, captured the information and relayed it to specified Red Cross offices in the area.
Finding a solution
To this end, the Ministry of Information and Communication made a request to KenCall earlier in the year as part of a wider appeal to the local business community to assist in viable famine solutions aimed at addressing the drought situation that had ravaged remote areas of the country. On receiving the request, Nicholas Nesbitt KenCall’s founder and CEO, immediately gathered a team to address the challenge and within three days the team had devised and resourced Kenya’s first famine emergency relief phone number and operation centre.
Using the Helpline
To access the service, people in need placed a call to the 109 freephone number informing the National Disaster Operations Centre (NDOC) of their situation. Each day, KenCall’s highly trained customer service agents received thousands of calls from people in drought-hit areas. KenCall’s response centre then produced a detailed daily report helping the NDOC understand where aid was needed. The NDOC then used this data to coordinate its team and deliver resources to these areas.
Results
By setting up the response centre rapidly, KenCall was able to make the 109 number synonymous with the crisis and ensure that those in peril knew where to call for aid. Within the first week of operation, the emergency number had grown from taking 4,000 calls on the first day to over 12,000 per day by the end of the week.
The Future
Presently, due to its enormous success the government has retained the service in order to maintain free information flow with people in disaster situations. Recently, assistance was given to a man with two wives and ten children who had not eaten in days. KenCall agents received the call, captured the information and relayed it to specified Red Cross offices in the area.
