Case Study: BRC and SMS Communication in Rural Areas

After the earthquake, the British Red Cross (BRC) established a programme to subsidise the school fees of 8,000 children displaced by the earthquake to the southern rural area of Les Cayes. BRC staff had recorded the phone numbers of all participants during the assessment (including designated community leaders where people did not have phones), and the team decided to use SMS as the only way to simultaneously inform everyone of the decision. This paper describes the implementation process.