Hamilton student and Sri Lanka native Malcolm "Freddie" Dias '05 offered to assist emergency management specialist Dr. Tom Phelan, a member of the IBM Crisis Response Team, following the December 26, 2004, tsunami. Dr. Phelan is the husband of Hamilton Communications Professor Catherine Waite Phelan. More than 300 volunteer undergraduates at the University of Moratuwa are being trained to collect tsunami victim data for the Sri Lankan government through the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka. Freddie provided a student's preview of the training program designed by Dr. Phelan. With Freddie's input, the program was enhanced for the Sri Lankan student audience. Training was scheduled for Jan. 13 at the University of Moratuwa Department of Information Technology and Engineering.
Once the 300 students were trained, they were to be deployed to 14 districts throughout Sri Lanka. The equipment donated by IBM includes 350 laptop computers, digital web cameras, and fingerprinting devices. The students will photograph and fingerprint victims in camps to populate a government registry at the Center for National Operations, a newly-created emergency operations center for managing the tsunami relief, rebuilding and logistics operations.
After his return to Hamilton, Freddie will continue to assist Phelan with follow-up efforts on the disaster relief project. Phelan said Freddie provided direct assistance even though his family had lost his uncle in the tsunami. "He has been absolutely wonderful -- responsible, disciplined, and dedicated to the task at hand," Phelan said.
