Satellites (and windmills) propel UNHCR effort to get food and assistance where it's needed.

• Position: Includes related articles - Office of UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Humanitarian tragedies such as that in the Great Lakes region of Africa are well-known to the general public who are informed of such disasters via images and footage from journalists and field workers on site, brought to the rest of the world over high-speed data transmission networks and broadcasting satellites. Nevertheless, the scale of such disasters is often difficult to comprehend. For aid agencies, such as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which are charged with feeding and sheltering the large numbers of displaced persons, these situations represent an enormous logistical task as they struggle to get people and aid to where it is needed as quickly as possible. With more than 80 per cent of its 5,000 staff working directly in the field, often in isolated, dangerous and difficult conditions, UNHCR relies heavily on communications systems to coordinate its efforts and keep in touch with its workers and those from other agencies.

In 1994, when the tragedy of Rwanda resulted in more than 1 million desperate people arriving at the small Zairian border town of Goma, UNHCR's established means of communication - HF (high frequency) radio transmission - was overwhelmed. Even the installation of multiple INMARSAT satellite telephone terminals at each UNHCR location was not able to cope with the volume of voice, data and fax communications needed to coordinate the international response to such an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.

In an effort to expand its communications capability, UNHCR turned to a relatively new type of technology - the Very Small Aperture Satellite (VSAT) terminals. Although "small" in name, the 3.7-metre reflector diameter meant that the VSAT satellite dishes were much larger than anything the organization had previously used. But the installation was worth the effort. The VSATs provided UNHCR's offices with eight simultaneous communications channels, where before they had had only one.

UNHCR staff quickly discovered that using VSAT systems required much "cleaner" electrical power than had hitherto been available, making it necessary for the organization's technicians to become knowledgeable about generators and "no-break" power supplies. And as the Coma office rapidly expanded to some 70 staff, technicians had to install a PABX in order to provide everyone with easy access to the newly installed communications system. But there remained the problem of how to provide phone and fax capabilities to a neighbouring UNHCR office in Gisengy, Rwanda, a short distance from the Zairian border. The solution proved to be the installation of a UHF (ulna-high frequency) Rural Telephone link, another technology new to UNHCR'S technical team.

While the implementation of these new systems went a long way towards improving communications with the outside world, the organization also needed to make improvements to its communications capabilities between field staff working in the area. To this end, dozens of VHF (very high frequency) repeaters were installed on every accessible - and sometimes not so accessible - vantage point.

Is the UNHCR satisfied with the quality of the communications it can provide? "Not yet", replies Jay Rushby, Head of Telecommunications. "In the last three years, my colleagues have connected over 120 of our offices to the organization's e-mail system using the terrestrial airline data network, SITA, as the carrier...