Last July 10-12, 2018, CVISNET visited Kathmandu of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal to conduct the Nepal MDRU Field Testing, Community Preparation and Technical Training. The visit was in cooperation the Education Nepal Foundation of Nepal (EN) and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation of Japan (NTT).
During the 2015 Nepal earthquake, it left almost 9,000 people killed and tens of thousands injured. Although after two years, Nepal has greatly reconstructed and restored several vital services. Another disaster could bring down again these infrastructure, they realized immediate restoration is very important to allow vital relief and rescue services in place.
The cooperation of ED, NTT and CVISNET brought the best available technology to enable immediate restoration of vital communication and computer services to possible affected areas in Nepal. NTT provided the MDRU technology and hardware; and CVISNET shared MDRU technical training and the Philippine experience especially in the preparation of resilient communities.
EN also provided materials to show the use of the system in delivering day to day information, such as educational materials from a database to field users operating a smart phone connected to the MDRU.
The training workshop was conducted in the Polchowk campus of the Tribhuvan University of Nepal and attended by at least 49 participants from various community groups of Kathmandu, including the local government, the police and military; schools and various NGOs.
This was capped with a simulated scenario conducted to mimic a disaster event connecting the the various created community groupings sharing information to a command center.
The acceptance of the MDRU to the stakeholders and participants was very high and they want further involvement with the MDRU project.