As soon as a few hours after landing in Tbilisi, Télécoms Sans Frontières began its first humanitarian calling operations enabling Georgians displaced by the conflict to give news to their anxious relatives of their survival, and any other information. In this process more than 200 families who fled the bombings in South Ossetia and Gori made calls to a loved one from operations taking place in camps installed at Tbilisi airport or in schools of the capital. Many families from South Ossetia have been separated, some members having fled South to Tbilisi and others North to North Ossetia. These calls are, essentially, facilitating family reunions, and easing the pain of those who lost everything and were left without any news for more than 10 days.

As an example, the TSF team met a woman who arrived in Tbilisi a few days earlier who wanted to call Gori where her husband stayed, and where landlines have been destroyed. She had no news of her husband, and the mobile network was frequently saturated. Through the efforts of TSF she managed to speak to a neighbor after several attempts, and was grateful to learn from him that her husband was alive.

Over 25 percent of the assist calls are to notify family living abroad, notably in neighboring countries such as Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and Kazakhstan as well as Italy, Germany, Poland and France. These calls enable Georgian expatriates to receive news after many days of anxiety, and send money so critical to help in the survival of their family members innocently caught in the conflict between Russia and Georgia. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, with which TSF is coordinated, more than 118,000 people have been displaced since the start of the conflict on August 7.

While Russian troops have announced they are receding from Georgia security conditions on the ground do not permit the TSF team to reach the most affected zones — yet. A TSF member who deployed a satellite-based Internet connection in Zougdidi in the West near the Black Sea and the secessionist region of Abkhazia heard explosions again this afternoon. TSF put satellite equipment on loan to help aid organizations which are sending assessment teams in some affected areas. TSF will deploy Emergency Communication Centres to facilitate coordination and enable communication right from the heart of the crisis as soon as the situation improves and that aid organizations can deploy at a bigger scale.