September 2016

Portfolio, Released, Technology

What business has business got to do with humanitarian issues?

Hound Dog Films were privileged to make a very special documentary about the extraordinary work of a small group of German business people, who came to the aid of refugees in Hamburg.

THE POWER OF CONNECTION

This is a film about the power of connection. The starting point was the refugee influx into Hamburg – 60,000 refugees who had to be accommodated in 40 refugee camps. But this film is about what happened next. With technology at its centre, the film is about creating a team of people who spontaneously came together to help other people. This is the story of people and the community connecting to make something happen. And how that continues to grow.

Watch this fascinating documentary.

As in most parts of Germany, the people of Hamburg were generally extremely welcoming towards the refugees. And many volunteered to collect and sort food and clothes for distribution to the refugee camps.

One of those volunteers, Mirko Bass, a Business Development Executive with Cisco, and a small group of colleagues, decided they wanted to do something more to help. They saw, in particular, the communication and medical challenges the Red Cross and the refugees faced and wondered if Cisco technology might have a role to play.

Until then, refugees had to queue for hours to seek medical help. The makeshift medical centres needed translators for 50 different languages. Those translators who were available, had to remain in the camps just in case they were needed. Patients and doctors often had to try to communicate with three of more translators in the same room – very unpleasant for all concerned. And complex, inefficient and very costly.

Mirko and his team considered whether they could adapt Cisco Telepresence technology to create a remote translation service, with translators dialled-up only when needed. But they needed some way of locating this and providing the environment where medical consultations could easily take place.

As one of the world’s biggest ports, Hamburg is synonymous with shipping containers. So Mirko contacted Harald Neidhardt, founder of MLove and the Future City Campus. Harald is a shipping container guru who has created sustainable living and working environments, just from existing shipping containers.

Their plan was to create a medical and translation facility inside specially adapted shipping containers. They presented their plan to Cisco, who agreed to fund the initial container, which was to be called the Refugee First Response Centre (RFRC).

They set about extending their team to include design, technology input, translation services and coordination with the Red Cross and medical services.

The container was to include a reception area for registration and a separate, private medical room. In this room the doctor can access translators of any one of 50 different languages, at any time, just by selecting that language on the telepresence screen in front of them – and, within a moment or two, a translator will appear on screen and help doctor and patient to understand each other.

It took just six weeks to develop the first RFRC, which was deployed to one of Hamburg’s largest refugee centres. The RFRC was an instant success, dramatically transforming the lives of refugees and the medical services.

Nine more containers quickly followed, generously funded by the Dorit & Otto Alexander Foundation and 100 more are now planned. Easily adaptable and transportable, the containers can be taken anywhere they are needed – the aim now is to develop the system for use at any crisis point, anywhere in the world.

Mirko says that the reason this project succeeded was in part because of the determination of a small group of people and their network of connections, and partly because of corporations, like Cisco, who were willing to put the good of humanity before commercial considerations.

It’s a partnership, he says, and it’s the power of connections. This story is an example where people, corporations and technology combine for the betterment of humanity.

Get inspired Watch this fascinating documentary.