Until last year, Lars Ruediger had never really traveled outside of the civilized Western world. But in November and December 2007 he found himself in the middle of Sub-Saharan Africa, in the Central African Republic (CAR), where he acted as a volunteer on behalf of the Ericsson Response program.
The CAR, as many countries in Africa, is also plagued by raging war between several fractions that use unimaginable violence to gain control and establish power. Especially the northern half of the country is devastated by war. Help is more than needed.
Therefore, under contract to the Swedish Rescue Services Agency (SRSA) with which Ericsson Response have an on-the-job training agreement, Lars Ruediger was given the task to support the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) with regard to ICT.
During his seven-week mission, he was stationed at the UN OCHA office in the capital of CAR, Bangui. From there he acted, on the one hand, as an ICT technician for OCHA, and on the other hand, he was also in charge of the maintenance and operation of ICT at a new UN Camp in the north-western town of Paoua, where the UN aims to establish a base to monitor and stabilize the situation.
