Investing in Disaster Preparedness and Response: Internews' Emergency Media Standby Kits

Internews has designed and procured 5 different types of Emergency Media Standby Kits to ensure humanitarian communication teams and local media partners have the right equipment on hand to rapidly set up an emergency newsroom and be able to broadcast when critical infrastructure is down.

Internews' humanitarian communication teams can deploy within 72-hours of a disaster to assess and assist local media organizations and help humanitarian responders understand and address the information and communication needs of disaster-affected communities.

These Emergency Media Standby Kits are stored at headquarters, packed and ready for immediate deployment. Check out this short video to learn more about the Emergency Kits.

Each kit contains the equipment necessary to respond to fully-fledged humanitarian communications operations and can be taken with Internews staff or humanitarian communications specialists from the Humanitarian Media Roster to different crisis contexts, depending on the particular needs of the response. The kits include:

• Newsroom equipment (Newsroom-in-a-Box): This contains equipment and material to equip local journalists to report stories in the midst of a crisis, ranging from digital recorders, microphones, and headphones to smartphones and laptops with audio editing software. The Newsroom-in-a-Box kit also includes a video camera and all the equipment necessary for video production and training. All the equipment fits into a backpack.
• Production equipment: This kit contains all the material needed to produce radio and other audio products, in a studio and also outdoors.
• Broadcast equipment (i.e. Radio-in-a-Box): In the event that media outlets are destroyed or severely damaged and unable to broadcast, this kit contains the equipment necessary to set up a mobile broadcasting facility, including a transmitter and a mast.
• Communication equipment and Office in-a-box: The fourth and fifth kits contain communications and office materials, including smartphones, satellite phones, BGAN portable satellite internet terminals, tents, generators, first aid kits, and non-perishable food. Wind-up radio handsets are also part of this kit for distribution to disaster-affected populations.

In designing these kits, Internews partnered with RadioActive, a UK-based social enterprise that provides equipment, training, and technical solutions for community radio stations, recording studios, and radio training centers. RadioActive helped to finalize the design and equipment list for the kits, source and procure all the items, package them in secure, customized cases, and create inventory lists and user manuals for how to assemble and use the equipment once deployed.