Tag: Sri Lanka
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“ShaRe” for bridging Social Capital during Crises
During the immediate aftermath of a disaster, it’s the neighboring communities or unaffected people in the area that activate to assist the victims with the basic needs of food, water, and shelter. However, the local community response cannot cope beyond the first 24 hours and need to reach out for external support. Often it is…
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Beyond text translations for the displaced and marginalized
Policy and Plans for Linguistically Challenged The European INTERACT project is part of a Migration Policy initiative. The project is studying how nations set emergency communication policies and plans in support multi-linguistics and crisis management. Findings are not promising and there is a severe need for intervention. Observation was that the studies had left out…
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Sri Lanka completes Pictographs fieldwork, after devastating floods
We had scheduled to carry out the Pictograph comprehensibility and appropriateness tests with Sarvodaya Communities during the last week of May, 2017. Unfortunately, the low-literate and functionally-illiterate communities, in Colombo and Ratnapura Districts, who took part in the previous exercise, were severely affected by the flash floods from the unpredicted heavy rains. Our ground partner, Sarvodaya…
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Sri Lankan low-literate communities enjoy symbology in disaster communication
In general low-literate community members, in Sri Lanka, struggled with comprehending the Sri Lanka Meteorological Services text bulletins – that is what was observed. Simpler visual indicators are easier to digest and help them with deciding on the safety and response measures they need to activate. Our aim was to understand how low-literate (or functionally…
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Technology Stewardship, is it for the Sahana Habitat?
Last week, I was part of a Research Team that pilot tested a training course designed to build Technology Stewardship capacity in support of knowledge mobilization. The concept originates from Wenger, White, and Smith’s work on Communities of Practice, published in the Digital Habitat. From a Digital Habitat perspective the research team would be classified…
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Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times Calls Sahana one of the “Solutions under our nose for better crisis co-ordination”
Recent floods in Sri Lanka have local media asking aloud why Sahana software, which was originally created in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Tsunami, isn’t being used by the government to help ease persistent coordination problems. Sahana Director Nuwan Wadyanatha is quotes multiple times in the article. One key quote is pasted below. “If policy-makers…
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Sahana MeetUp – Colombo, Sri Lanka + Virtual
We had a great Meetup this week with 15 people – 10 in Sri Lanka and 5 joining virtually. We started off together, and then split into a virtual group and a on-location group before reporting back together at the end. We were lucky to have Preeti Jha from UNDP to share the work she’s…
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IOTX Sri Lanka : SahanaCamp
IOTX Sri Lanka : SahanaCamp was a participatory workshop on the use of Disaster Management Information Systems with a focus on the Sahana Open Source Disaster Management Information System. It gave participants An introduction to real-world Sahana disaster management solutions Hands on experience using Sahana to manage information and make decisions in a disaster simulation. Analysis…
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IOTX Sri Lanka: A glimpse from the eyes of an intern
I have been associated with Sahana Software Foundation since October, 2013, first as a volunteer contributor, then as a Sahana intern for four months and since April as a Google Summer of Code (GSoC) intern. Sahana Software Foundation held its SahanaCamp and Sahana Conference in conjunction with the Indian Ocean Tsunami 10th (IOTX) Anniversary convention…
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IOTX Sri Lanka : CAP Code-Fest
The CAP (Common Alerting Protocol) Code-Fest was the hacker’s day of the week ( Everybody was plugged in, with coffee beside every laptop 😀 ) CAP is a XML based data format which is used to send warnings, alerts and other important data during emergencies. This allows the disaster and risk management tools and other tools used during…