An Iraqi woman with her son at a transit camp in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: UNHCR/S. Baldwin

[Via Satellite 06-20-2014] The Inmarsat-sponsored organization Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) arrived in the Kurdistan province of Iraq to help citizens contact family and friends during this time of developing unrest.

TSF will provide those fleeing their homes the use of eight IsatPhone Pro satellite phones to stay in touch with relatives. It is thought that up to half a million people have fled their homes from the Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq across the border regions of Kurdistan into Iran.

The TSF team will also use three Inmarsat Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) Explorer 500 terminals to establish Humanitarian Internet Communication Centers to give people access to the Internet, email and news websites with interactive tablets. The centers will also provide a space for emergency workers from other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), including various United Nations agencies, to work together.