Ericsson is proud of Ericsson Response. We are also proud that the hundreds of employees who have trained for the initiative or been deployed to disaster relief efforts have done so on a voluntary basis. As part of Ericsson Response Week, which marks the initiative’s 10th anniversary, we spoke to some volunteers.

While any Ericsson employee can become an Ericsson Response volunteer, it is no surprise that most volunteers have technical or engineering expertise. Establishing and repairing communications infrastructure is a top priority in the early stages of disaster relief operations.

Volunteer Lars Ruediger is part of the team that trains new volunteers. He has been deployed on several assignments, most recently in Haiti.

"Teams with communications equipment are often first on the scene, because our partners need to be able to contact the outside world quickly, and to get hold of rescue staff, so they know what has to be done," Ruediger says.

"The computer and satellite equipment can easily be charged through a car battery, a solar energy panel or something similar. The time and place determine how and where you can set up your equipment.

"With the help of a compass, the satellite antenna is then set up at the right angle, so you can make contact with the satellite. A mere touch of a button, and that's it – the group has access to both a telephone and the internet. This technology works anywhere on the planet."

Ericsson Canada employee Gilles-Philippe Gregoire worked with Save the Children in Sudan to help the NGO (non-governmental organization) train local employees to handle computers and communications equipment as part of a construction project.

"Many of the villages had just one water source," he says. "Save the Children was vaccinating children and adults, and through the work that Ericsson Response did, the agency was able to focus more on helping children and mothers," Gregoire says.

The experience has changed Gregoire's life. "Before the assignment, little things would bother me," he says. "But after having lived in southern Sudan for a month, working closely with the local population and seeing people enjoying life, despite having far less than us, I really appreciate what I have."

Ericsson Response veteran Jan Herremo has been involved since the establishment of the initiative in 2000, including deployments in Sudan in 2004 and later that year in Sri Lanka, after the earthquake and resulting tsunamis that devastated many coastal areas in South Asia.

One of the most senior employees to volunteer is Kristoffer Sjöström, head of Security Operations at Ericsson.

He was deployed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), partly to help repair hardware damaged in the conflict and resulting humanitarian disaster, and partly to research security considerations to provide better support for volunteers in future deployments.

Sjöström says he was impressed by the cooperation between Ericsson Response and United Nations personnel.

"We were together 24/7 with a lot of really good cooperation," he says. "This mission helped me better understand what kind of challenges there are and what kind of support our volunteers need from Ericsson."

Josephine Edwall, steering group member and head of Communications at Ericsson Response, says: "Ericsson Response was started with the aim of contributing to humanitarian relief work, offering technology and expertise in natural disasters for our partners, in combination with a wish that our employees would be motivated and feel proud."

Edwall say all volunteers should take pride in their achievements over the past 10 years.