The Campaign

The affected were completely ‘disconnected’ from the rest of the civilization and there was complete ignorance on the number of people affected and the actual condition of those affected. The Disaster Management Center (DMC), the government affiliated body, to provide aid and rescue, had to rely on people trying to get in touch with the DMC - seeking help from the affected areas to a greater extent rather than DMC reaching out to them which was not possible due to number of fatal landslides and road network being inundated, where reaching out physically to the affected was minimal. Due to the high network traffic arisen due to the disaster, contact-ability with the DMC through voice calls was impossible which prompted us to come up with communication solution based on the common short messaging service as means to contact DMC as the possibility of a phone in possession was high.

Creative Execution

With the help of the local mobile operator a SMS hotline directly linked to the DMC was activated with a simple but efficient dashboard giving critical information at a glance which allowed to understand the context of the message and take necessary action swiftly. The system was agile enough to be up and running in 24 hours. The geo targeted SMS’s focused on affected locations were relayed as the first touch point whilst awareness building posts were posted and boosted on FB to increase reach. Within just a few hours after going live, the lines were inundated with a multitude of responses streaming in. Initial responses were about actual location of affected victims & requests for evacuation. Whilst the first line of messages of requests for evacuation weaned off a second line of responses requesting for other aid and assistance & food started streaming in. Numerous Social activists and other social influencers also commenced posting, sharing, liking the efforts taken which further amplified the exercise which has started to provide significant results by then. The Secondary line of mediums comprising of some of Sri Lanka’s biggest Community pages in Social Media platforms were reached out for additional reach & scale.

The DMC received more than 1,300 messages within just a few hours of setting up the system. Over 200,000 people were reached through social media which resulted in close to 8,000 reactions, comments & shares. In the end, DMC was able to connect and support almost 2,500 distressed individuals who were impacted through this simple but very effective system. In a country where mass communication accounts for more than 98%, reaching out to a significant portion of affected communities in the absence of those very mediums through a mobile centric system was a great feat by all means. The engagement was effective to the extent that even family members living abroad reached out to DMC with information on their stranded family. ‘The choice to act’ ended up saving not just one or two lives but 2,500 innocent lives affected by this unprecedented calamity all for a budget less than $5000.

It was a creative yet a very rational choice as the likelihood of a possession of a phone amongst victims were high as the country enjoyed a high mobile penetration of 109%. Even with the lack of electricity required for charging, that the country predominantly is a 70% feature phone market allowed a greater number of phones to be active throughout. All flood affected communities living across more than 15 districts fell in to the targeted group. Mobile phones emerged as the only available ‘life-line’ when affected communities were cut away from all sources of connectivity of TV, Radio & Newspapers. It was complimented by facts like that Sri Lankan users has a habit of glancing at their phones an average of 200 times a day. Due to the limitation of connectivity to a highly congested DMC voice-lines a SMS based communication solution was devised as means of contact.