Serviciul Civic de Ajutor

 A Civic Help Service That Will Save Lives

„Victor Ciumac runs the Association for the Environment and Local Sustainable Development (AMDDL), an NGO geared at helping local communities achieve sustainability and build capabilities with focus areas such as crisis management, education, and environmental protection. At TechCamp Bucharest in December of 2011, Victor emerged as one of the outspoken leaders, rallying others in his group to design a project plan, utilizing the new low-cost and easy-to-use technologies that he learned there to develop a crisis response platform called Civic Help Service. We, the TechCamp team, had a chance to sit down with Victor to talk about his project and his plans for the future.

For Victor, responding to natural disasters is a major concern in Romania, which encounters numerous floods, earthquakes, fires, and heavy snowfall. The problem is, explained Victor, there is not always an adequate response system to account for individuals and to help those in trouble in the event of a disaster. For the rural parts of Romania in particular, it is hard to get in touch with people as they do not always have good phone and internet access. This is a huge concern particularly for the elderly with limited mobility when a disaster strikes. Victor cited a particular instance shortly after TechCamp Bucharest, where houses in rural areas had caved in roofs because of a significant snow storm. In this case, Victor and some other volunteers gathered together and took shovels to help bail people out from a potential disastrous situation.

AMDDL is currently working with Liga Software, a Romanian professional software development company to build a civic response platform that will serve as a central place for identifying places or persons that need help in the event of a disaster. Alongside the platform, Victor is now in touch with the Mayor of Odobesti in Vrancea county (the location of the first pilot of this program), and plans to provide training to the local population about the platform and how to respond in an emergency. Odobesti is the epicenter of seismic activity for the region and an area that is heavily affected by floods.

At TechCamp, Victor met a number of technologists and other helpful contacts, that have helped shape this project. Namely Gregory Asmolov, a TechCamp expert in social media and crowdsourcing platforms development, and Ovidiu Bujorean from CRDF Global who provided the project with continued counseling after the TechCamp was done. The next step for Victor, will be working with local partners to host a follow on event that focuses solely on crisis response. Victor hopes to hold the event this fall, bringing in experts in the crisis response space as well as private sector organizations that might be interested in supporting his efforts.”

Sursa:  Tech Camp Global, Washington D.C. Aprilie 2012: http://techcampglobal.org/a-civic-help-service-that-will-save-lives/