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Yemen is nowadays considered as a "risky" country, according to the French Ministry for European and Foreign affairs. For the past 15 years, more than 200 abductions of foreigners were reported on this territory. Today, Dibeh Fakhr, spokesman of the ICRC, declared that from the present time "no contact was established between the abductors nor our employee". 

This sad event reminds us the three humanitarian workers from the French NGO Triangle Génération humanitaire, freed last November, as they had been detained for more than 6 months. On the occasion of our Afterwork, organized on the 8th of March 2012, Patrick Verbruggen, co-director of the NGO, told the audience about the means that could be used in such a situation. 

As Pierre Micheletti, former director of Doctors of the World, recalled it in Le Quotidien du Médecin at the same period: “Whereas the humanitarian space is shrinking, [NGOs] have to clarify their position to prevent any hotchpotch between their commitment and the foreign policies run by their country". The question of humanitarian actors' safety has become essential.

Let's remember that for the very year 2008, 260 humanitarian actors were abducted, severely injured or killed. The year 2011 confirmed this state of things: more than 200 were victims of violence of all kinds. It is not rare that NGOs withdraw their workers from a country that has become too dangerous. It happened to Doctors of the World in the late 1990s in Sudan, for a few months, and to Doctors without Borders in 2004 in Afghanistan.

This last abduction brings to 6 the number of French people currently detained all over the world. The Red Helmets Foundation holds to express its support to the family and colleagues of the ICRC agent, and do not forget about the other hostages : Denis Allex, officer in the General direction for external security, captive in Somalia since July 2009 ; Pierre Legrand, Daniel Larribe, Thierry Dol and Marc Furrer detained since September 2010 in the Sahel desert.

You can find all the stories told during the humanitarian Afterwork of the Red Helmets Foundation on the video below :

In some areas on earth, it has become less easy to send humanitarian staffs, because of a rising dangerousness. That's the core of the growing interest for technological tools as Skype, which enable people to remain in contact, while remaining safe. "We use Skype in 32 countries, to easy teleconferences with teams on the ground" confirms Antoine Peigney, Red Cross international relations and operations Director. 

The Red Cross also exploits, via a partnership with the French Weather service, satellite pictures so as to keep an eye on developing hurricanes for example. However, if this solution is not new, the means put in place to warn the populations are. Thanks to the quick spread of mobile phones, even in isolated areas, it has become more simply to take prevention actions at a wide scale. "In Haiti, through a partnership with a local mobile phone operator, tells Antoine Peigney, we were able to send SMS on people's phones, to give them advices, because of two endemic peaks of cholera". 

This strategy was also used for following patients who had endured a medical intervention:"in Bamako, Mali, we used SMS too, to keep in touch with the mothers of children who had had an operation." Skype, texts but research engines as well. Launched by the Red Helmets Foundation just one year ago, during the Japanese earthquake, "Missing.net" is the very first research engine of the kind. Developed, in partnership with Google, it aims at facilitating missing people research after natural disasters. Nicole Guedj, former minister and founder of the Foundation that initiated the project testifies: "the idea rose during my experience in the government, where I was charged to accompany the victims of the South-East tsunami. I could witness then how hard, for the families, it was to find a hint on where their missing close was.”

Find the whole article on the website lenouveleconomiste.fr

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During a one-week stopover in Burkina Faso, on the occasion of InnovAfrica Forum, the JERRY project took off and widens its public. This annual meeting which gathered more than 150 participants, from 14 French-speaking countries, aims at sharing technological and innovative solutions to local development obstacles.

The tests, made on the spot, were conclusive. The general usefulness of the project is not to be demonstrated, which may facilitate the imminent birth of numerous "baby JERRYs", as the developers call them. The spreading of the concept is made possible thanks to open-source principles: the JERRY team makes the detailed plans and the building and instruction manual available, on the website.

For the first time, the JERRY clan holds a workshop to build "baby JERRYs". To attend it, and also build your own model, meet at the Fabelier, 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, Paris (14e), on Wednesday 21st of March 2012, from 17 pm on. 

There, all components will be available to build several "bay JERRYs", devoted to be given to different NGOs acting for reducing the digital divide:  

·         One Laptop Per Child deals micro-PCs to children so as they can get a better education and get more connected (therefore aware) of the surrounding world.

·         Close the Gap collects old computers and gives them to developing countries local population that requests it, according to its needs and projects. Many computers are also dealt in schools or hospitals.

·         Telecom Without Borders installs cyber-cafés managed by inhabitants all over the world, or builds communication centers, in order to enable NGOs to communicate from or to isolated areas and give victim people free calls. 

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Do not hesitate to join, there is still some place! 

That those who are no handymen come anyway, to have a new vision of what a computer might look like.