EVERY YEAR

OVER 55 NATURAL
DISASTERS OCCUR
IN THE AMERICAS.

4 / Reacción / Institucional Brief / 2017

ABOUT US
WE WANT TO EMPOWER OTHER TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
Since the creation of Reacción in 2014, we have gathered a group of experts in diverse subjects
such as community development, data analysis, disaster risk reduction, electronics and open design
methodologies. We aim to create technological platforms to allow people to become active actors within
their own environments through the use of participative design methodologies and the reduction of the
technological gap. We strive to generate appropriate ideas for urban and rural contexts, and to generate
social impact through community participation.

WE BELIEVE IN THE CREATIVIVE POWER OF COMMUNITIES

A great part of our work includes teaching through the use of inclusive design processes, and the
understanding of already existing social dynamics for the settings we intervene. We believe that
technology should be at the reach of everyone and that it should solve real problems, especially in rural
communities. We create technology that is not only inclusive, but also appropriate to the context of least
favored regions and communities.

OUR GOAL IS TO SAVE LIVES

We know the skills of the people that we serve and work with, as well as their potential to generate new
solutions to improve the quality of live for many people. This brings us to work alongside technologists,
artisans, designers, institutions, local and international organisms, academia and makers alike in order to
generate solutions and to improve the quality of lives in rural and urban contexts.
 EARLY WARNING
SYSTEMS
Our model began with the design of an open source early kit to be used in hard-to-reach
communities. This creates the full capabilities of an early warning system, based upon
community organization and a communications systems to empower vulnerable groups
during and after the occurrence of natural disasters.

WE HELP CREATE LOCAL WE IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVITY WE FOCUS IN COMMUNITIES

EARLY WARNING NETWORKS
The system utilizes a dedicated
communications network. In other
words, it was designed to work in
scenarios where the traditional
communications infrastructure may
fail. This allows to notably improve
the response capabilities during the
first hours after a natural event.
OF HUMANITARIAN AID
Through our model, it is possible to
gather information from vulnerable
and inaccessible areas in less time,
allowing humanitarian aid to
articulate their efforts in a timely
manner, to reduce the level of risk for
humanitarian workers on the field,
and allowing to generate damage
estimates more quickly.
WHEN DESIGNING
Our system was designed and is
under improvement alongside its
users. It responds to local needs, by
using signals validated by community
leaders alongside experts in different
areas, thus becoming a real solution
applied to a specific social context.

6 / Reacción / Institucional Brief / 2017

 REACCIÓN KIT
OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE
The source code of our device has been freed
and is available for others to analyze and modify.
We aim to generate a community of persons and
organizations interested in the creation of solutions
capable of saving human lives and reducing risks for
humanitarian teams, for the most critical moments
during the occurrence of a natural event.
8 / Reacción / Institucional Brief / 2017
MESH PROTOCOL
The Reaction Kit is designed to generate an
alternative communications network in case where
other networks do not work due to physical damages
to the networks. This allows for a higher level of
flexibility in the configuration of the devices and that
the communities of users can send help requests, as
well as that they can receive information from other
community leaders in nearby areas.
 TOROGOZ 1.0
INTEGRATED SENSORS
Aside human intervention, our device also utilizes
sensors to measure environmental variables. This will
help gather more and better information regarding
the situation of our users. A built-in accelerometer
generates data regarding the kinds of movements
made by the users during the evacuation and rescue
stages.
GEOLOCALIZATION
Our system allows to recognize and register the
movements of users during a disaster event. During
a disaster, a community leader can mobilize to a
safer area by following evacuation routs. All this
information can be used to analyze behavior and
displacement patterns, in order to generate more
effective action plans in the future for humanitarian
teams and disaster response teams within the local
communities.
 COMMUNITY

OUR INTEREST IS This project aims to provide a solution that not many humanitarian iniciatives
deliver: to empower through technology and decision taking, to all people who
FOCUSED IN THE MOST are directly affected by natural disasters. The implementation of this project
takes into account the following aspects:
VULNERABLE REGIONS, • Community development and civic engagement, thus becoming
THROUGH THE USE OF a solution that centers on the use of technology to develop smart
citizens with the support of networks around the world.
LOW-COST TECHNOLOGY
• The combination of innovation and community aspects, the
OF HIGH SOCIAL IMPACT. integration between allied organizations, their operations
and already existing disaster response systems make of this
technological solution an element that allows to articulate
different elements, turning technology into a catalyzer for social
innovation.

10 / Reacción / Institucional Brief / 2017

 COMMUNICATION
Red de Acción Comunitaria is based on existing behavioral patterns, established by the
communities and reinforced by disaster response plans in order to propose a relevant
solution to the context of natural disasters.

IN-FIELD COMMUNICATION
Our kits communicate among themselves without
requiring any physical infrastructure. This makes
the network function in any place as long as the
devices are within the network communication
range.

REAL TIME INFORMATION

The information shared by the devices is gathered
by our devices to inform community leaders about
the state of nearby communities during any event.

CALL TO ACTION
We put our bets on the creation of an information
system which gathers data from communities for
their own benefit. The available information will
serve to prioritize humanitarian aid efforts.

12 / Reacción / Institucional Brief / 2017

OUR TEAM
 PAST PROJECTS
REACCIÓN KIT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
In partnership with Asociación Conexión in El Salvador, supported by the Frida Program and in collaboration with
Habitat for Humanity El Salvador, Red de Acción Comunitaria focused on working alongside a rural team based in
Ahuachapán, a western department of El Salvador for the design, validation and first implementation of the Reacción
Kit.

For this project, the Getsemaní and Fatima communities shared their insights and experiences regarding natural
disasters and the area, and participated actively in the design and implementation of a tool for effective communications
within their own communities. For this, the project focused in two main components:

1. Development and production of the Kit Reacción: The team worked on the technical validation of the device
from a functional and operative prototype. This was done by using a co-creation and co-design methodology
accompanied by users from the intervened community, where the use of the Kit was outlined and planned through
design validation workshops on which different aspects were analyzed such as functionality and resistance against
failures of the system. The development and validation of the functionality of the device was executed with support
from strategic alliances that Reacción managed to weave with local and international organizations.

2. Implementation of the Reacción System: Starting from the validated prototype through the co-creation and
collaborative design workshops alongside the benefited community, an effective implementation took place. Ten
testing prototypes were fabricated for the implementation of the network in coordination with the local early
warning commitee in the area, and coordinated with local institutions. A test drill was organized to test the system,
to validate technical aspects and to generate feedback to document aspects to be improved in case of real disaster
scenarios.

Although the technological layer in this project has been important for this process, the human aspect was an
indispensable vehicle for the communication system to attain an efficient monitoring, response, and above all, the
capacity to prioritize the most affected areas within a region.

14 / Reacción / Institucional Brief / 2017

 MAKERTHON 1.0
Red de Acción Comunitaria organized in partnership with Fab Lab El Salvador, Internet Day in El Salvador
Committee and FABLAT (Latin American Fab Lab Network) Fest 2016, the 1st Latin American Makerthon, an
event design and organized from San Salvador, El Salvador and taking place simultaneously in four fab labs from
three countries.

The event invited product designers and engineers for the design and prototyping of a version for the first generation
of kits to be produced and utilized in the community of Ahuachapán, based on the first board, Torogoz 1.0. The
participants of the event worked based on an agile prototyping methodology (lean pretotyping) for the design, using
low-cost tools and materials in order to create a functional proposal for a viable design with the desired product
characteristics for a device to be used in rural areas, and for specific scenarios of natural disasters in the region.

Around 70 designers and engineers from Argentina, El Salvador and Mexico generated more than 50 design proposals
during an 8-hour period, many of them physical and digital designs.
 MAKERTHON 2.0
Red de Acción Comunitaria took part of a gathering of designers and engineers in San Juan de Pasto, Colombia, to
develop the second Design Makerthon as part of the Diseño para el Cambio conference. The event was organized
by the Artefacto Collective from the University of Pasto, and the Information Technologies and Open Government
Department, from the Gobernment of Nariño, Colombia.

For this workshop, the team developed a minimal, low-cost, programmable and customizable version of the original
Reacción Kit designed specifically to teach participants about the basic protocols of communications needed for
communities in case of natural disasters in vulnerable regions. A second component, directed to designers, consisted
in the uses of digital fabrication tools in order to analyze environmental variables and to design community-based
monitoring solutions in short time.

The workshops expects to develop capabilities in fab labs and innovation laboratories around the world to develop and
repelicate Reacción Kits to be used in the future, taking into account local technical and environmental needs.

16 / Reacción / Institucional Brief / 2017

 PARTNERS

COLLABORATORS

RECOGNITIONS
RUNNER UP, FAB AWARDS - FAB10, BARCELONA 2014

FRIDA GRANTS WINNER - LACNIC, URUGUAY 2014

INNOVATORS UNDER 35 CENTRAL AMERICA - MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW 2015