So our two days of
meeting people working on the frontline of FTR work had been extremely
insightful and interesting, but the one thing we had really been lacking was
talking to someone who had experienced the chaotic and overwhelming nature of
an emergency response situation.
i.e. The kind of situation that RapidFTR is primarily designed to help
with. Since the entire plan for
the first week had had to change at the last minute, it wasn’t looking like we
were going to get this opportunity.
But out of nowhere came the realisation that Fatouma, our incredibly
modest guide from UNICEF Gulu for the last 48 hours, had actually worked with
UNHCR during two very big refugee influxes about a year ago. Interviewing her turned out to be one
of the most helpful moments of the trip…
Fatouma had been based
at an initial registration point close to the border during a massive influx of
refugees from the Congo in November 2009.
With only a handful of aid workers to handle the situation, 15,000 new refugees
had arrived in the space of 24 hours.
Usually all new arrivals must be registered before any aid can be given
(for instance, to check that they are genuine refugees, and not simply Ugandan
nationals looking for benefits) but with that many people, regular process goes
out the window. Priority number
one was trying to provide shelter, water, and food to everyone.
The strategy for
dealing with unaccompanied children was to initially just keep them in a
separate area of the camp, where they could at least be watched over and
monitored. In such a refugee
scenario, still less than a kilometre from the border and the danger of
violence they were fleeing from, the aim of the Government is to relocate
people to a transit point at least 50km away, within 48 hours. Fatouma
mentioned that trying to fill in the bulky UNHCR manifest for registering these
children before they were relocated wasn’t always possible. They also frequently missed the
opportunity to capture a photo of the child on registration, which made the
process harder later on. She was
excited about the portability of RapidFTR, meaning she and others working to
register children would always have the means necessary to do this on the spot.
Eventually, children and adults alike were all registered and entered into an inter-agency database. (It took four days to process everyone in the line.) Everyone was tagged with a wristband, which had a unique ID number / barcode. This ID could be instrumental in tying the data collected using RapidFTR with the records maintained by other organisations. Given the potential importance of this ID, it was good to also learn that these wristbands have barcodes. Potentially a barcode reader could be a massive help, in order to ensure data integrity.
Eventually, children and adults alike were all registered and entered into an inter-agency database. (It took four days to process everyone in the line.) Everyone was tagged with a wristband, which had a unique ID number / barcode. This ID could be instrumental in tying the data collected using RapidFTR with the records maintained by other organisations. Given the potential importance of this ID, it was good to also learn that these wristbands have barcodes. Potentially a barcode reader could be a massive help, in order to ensure data integrity.
Wherever possible, it was
important to follow up with all registered children within 48 hours of
arrival. This included children
who had already been reunited with a family member or relative. The aid workers need to check on the well
being of the child, and to see if bringing the child back into the family unit
had caused any issues. The
importance of this follow up work reinforced an idea that we had already picked
up from discussions with GUSCO and KICWA: the introduce a follow up form type
into RapidFTR; or to make custom forms repeatible, so that they could be filled
in multiple times. Because of the hectic
nature of such emergency situations, another idea is to build in some kind of
alerts / reminder system into the mobile app. E.g. A child registered over 48 hours ago hasn’t had any
follow up: advise the aid worker of this.
This might integrate nicely with the follow up form concept.
There had not been
time to erect a photo wall for tracing purposes during either of these refugee
influxes that Fatumar had worked at.
This raised some interesting questions about exactly how RapidFTR might
be used by UNICEF or other NGOs in such a situation. Hopefully the ability to search on a device, and possibly a
mini photo wall view, make a massive difference to getting children back
together with their families as quickly as possible.
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